


Gone

by SophiaHawkins



Category: Law & Order: SVU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-10
Updated: 2021-02-28
Packaged: 2021-03-10 02:08:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 25,567
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27996540
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SophiaHawkins/pseuds/SophiaHawkins
Summary: The SVU detectives stumble on a case involving a murdered doctor, his missing son, and a manhunt to catch a killer before time runs out, but the deeper they investigate, they realize nothing is what it seems.
Kudos: 3





	1. Chapter 1

Gone

Elliot pulled the unmarked car up in front of the house and got a glimpse of both the amount of police already on the scene, and how large the house was. Both of their salaries for the next decade would barely even make a down payment on the place. It was a three story tall brick house with French doors on the second floor, and looked like it had 30 rooms easily. It could've been the sight of a narcotics bust for sure, or if it had been raided during a wild party, it would make sense to call sex crimes, but instead they were called out in the middle of the day because there was one man in the house and he was dead. It sounded simple enough, the cleaning woman came in and found him shot to death, very cut and dry, didn't sound like something requiring their expertise.

"So did you get why we got called on this?" he asked Olivia.

Olivia leaned out the window and took in a fuller view of the spectacle before them, and shook her head. "Nope."

"If that mansion's any indicator," Elliot said as they got out, "probably just somebody who knows somebody who knows somebody who's covering all bases."

"Covering all asses is more like it," she replied.

The two SVU cops pulled up the crime scene tape, flashed their badges to the unis posted outside, and showed themselves inside.

Entering through the front door, it was pandemonium. There were about a dozen cops both uniform and plainclothes alike scattered through the hall, the dining room and the living room, in between CSU working the crime scene, the cleaning woman who was being interviewed, and Warner who was hovered over the body laying on the floor in a massive puddle of blood that was still in the process of drying.

"What've we got, Melinda?" Elliot asked.

Warner looked up at them in mild surprise. "No immediate sign of any sexual activity or assault, but I won't know for sure until I get him on the table."

"Who is he?" Olivia asked.

The dead man on the floor was relatively good looking or rather was when he was alive, he was probably six feet tall, had short light hair, he looked to be in his late 30s or early 40s and was dressed in an expensive suit that didn't conceal the fact he was well built.

"Dr. Steven Moll," a female CSU tech answered, "39 years old, one execution style shot to the back of the head, we haven't recovered the shell casing yet."

"A doctor?" Elliot asked, "What'd he do, charge someone too much for an x-ray?"

"He's a scientist, Elliot," Warner told him. "He does extensive work on new experimental drugs in trial runs for cancer."

"How do you know?" Olivia asked.

"The walls have tongues," the medical examiner answered.

"Huh?" Elliot asked.

Then he saw what she meant, scattered over the wall were plaques and framed articles with the doctor's picture on them for his achievements in his field.

"Find the gun?" Olivia asked.

"Negative," one of the uniforms answered. "We've tossed the whole house, there _are_ several guns here but none of them have been fired lately."

"Any sign of forced entry?" Elliot asked.

"Cleaning woman found the door unlocked. Nothing's missing, nothing's tossed, there's no sign of a struggle."

"So somebody just waltzed in, shot him when he wasn't looking, and waltzed out?" Olivia asked.

"Looks that way," another uniform answered.

"And a rarity for such a case, he fell backwards and landed on the entry wound, as opposed to most execution style victims who fall forward instead," Melinda noted.

"Okay, so why call us?" Olivia asked.

"This is why," Melinda said as she stood up, and picked up a framed photograph off the mantel. "Since I don't have to listen to my patients while I work, I overheard some of the cops here saying it'd be better if you two handled this side of it since you have a lot of experience dealing with kids."

The two SVU detectives went over to Melinda and looked at the photo. It was of a young boy, maybe 10, maybe 12, with short light hair and bore an uncanny resemblance to the man on the floor.

"He has a son?" Olivia asked.

"12 years old," Melinda answered. "The maid says his name's David."

"Where is he?" Elliot asked.

Olivia looked at her watch and held up her arm. "At school, it's almost 3 o' clock."

"Melinda, how long would you say he's been dead?" Elliot asked, hoping against all hope that that boy hadn't been a witness to his father's murder.

"Based on body temp and the rate the blood's dried at," Melinda said, "I'd say about six hours."

"So his son would've already been in school," Olivia said.

"Thank God for small favors," Elliot dryly murmured.

"What school does he go to?" Olivia asked.

* * *

The school turned out to be Spencer Academy, a very expensive, very exclusive private school for students in middle school and junior high. Elliot and Olivia found the principal, Mrs. Norton, a tall, heavyset black woman with short braids in a blue dress suit, and walked with her through the corridor as they explained the reason for their visit.

"We need to speak to one of your students, David Moll," Olivia said.

The principal turned to her and said, "He's not in any trouble, is he?"

"Is there a reason he should be?" Elliot inquired.

Mrs. Norton turned to him and answered, "No, David's an absolute joy. Very bright, full of energy, a little timid but I guess that's to be expected."

"Why?" Elliot asked.

"He just recently transferred here, and it's my understanding this is his first time in an actual academic setting," she said.

"He was homeschooled?" Olivia asked.

"Not exactly, his dad said he had private tutors previously."

"How come?" Elliot asked.

"He said until recently they had to travel a lot for his work, made it impossible to put down any real roots," Mrs. Norton told them.

"Where is he now?" Olivia asked.

"It should be about time for his father to pick him up."

"Yeah well that's not happening," Elliot said. "Mrs. Norton, David's dad was murdered this morning."

The principal looked at them both with a wide eyed expression. "Oh my God."

"We need to speak to David and break the news to him," Olivia said.

"He never goes out to the parking lot, he always waits inside until Steven comes to get him," she said.

"What was his last class?" Elliot asked.

"History, this way," the principal led them through a couple more twists and turns in the school corridors before they arrived at the classroom.

The door was open and the kids had already piled out, all that was left was the teacher, who was closing folders on her desk.

"Miss Jenkins, where did David Moll go?" the principal asked.

The teacher was a young woman in her 20s with dark curly hair and glasses, who looked to the three people at the door and said with a curious expression on her face, "His father just came and picked him up 10 minutes ago, why?"

"That's not possible," Olivia said.

"I saw him," the teacher answered defensively. "Mrs. Norton, what's this about?"

"Dr. Moll is dead, Cathy," the principal told her.

"That…can't be, I just saw him take David out of the building," the young teacher insisted.

Elliot took a picture out of his jacket and asked her, "Just to be clear, this was the guy you saw?"

Miss Jenkins shook her head. "No, who's that?"

Elliot looked at her and blinked. "This is Steven Moll."

Mrs. Norton took the picture from him and shook her head as well. "No, I don't know who that is, but that's not David's father."

Olivia and Elliot looked at each other in complete confusion and the beginning of panic.


	2. Chapter 2

"It's crucial that we find David and who he's with," Olivia told the two women, "who are his friends here?"

"Uh…" the teacher scrambled to come up with an answer, "Anton Spencer."

Elliot looked at her and asked, "That a coincidence?"

"His grandfather founded the school."

"Why does that not surprise me?" Elliot murmured under his breath.

"Is he still here?" Mrs. Norton asked.

"I'll go check," Miss Jenkins ran out of the classroom.

"How long had David been attending school here?" Elliot asked.

"About three months ago."

"If we could get the number for David's cell phone we might be able to ping his movements," Elliot mentioned to Olivia.

"David doesn't have a cell phone," Mrs. Norton told them.

The two detectives turned to the principal and asked, "What?"

"You gotta be kidding me," Elliot said, "every 12 year old has a cell phone these days."

"Not David, his father wouldn't let him have one, he said for security reasons."

"Why's that?" Olivia asked.

"Dr. Moll received a lot of death threats, that's why he picked this school to send his son to, we have a strict no phones policy, and not just anybody can come off the streets and get in," she explained.

"Why was he getting death threats?" Olivia asked.

"His work, the idea of trial runs with cancer drugs implies somewhere during the testing phase, they're not going to work. Families who lost loved ones felt like he deliberately misled them or intentionally killed their relatives."

"He told you this?" Elliot asked.

"He wanted to make sure we understood why it was vital he come at the same time every day and pick David up," Mrs. Norton answered. "A lot of students come and go as they please, but Dr. Moll wasn't having any of it, he was adamant about David staying here until he came and got him."

"Okay, and if this," Olivia held up the photograph, "isn't Dr. Moll, can you describe him to us?"

"He's about six feet tall, late 30s…I'd say well built, he has one of those…what do you call them…buzz cuts."

"Like the military?" Elliot asked.

"Something like that, you know, the hair's just barely there and you can see the razor bumps on the back of his head."

Olivia turned to Elliot and murmured, "Definitely _not_ the man sprawled out on the floor in Moll's home."

"Then who the hell is he?" Elliot asked.

* * *

"Yeah I know David, so what?" Anton Spencer was seated on a bench outside the principal's office as he answered the detectives' questions. He was a tall, skinny kid with a faded haircut and his voice was already starting to change. He wore the school's uniform of a white dress shirt, a blazer, a black tie, and tan pants, though it was obvious he'd grown since the beginning of the semester, the pants came up two inches short on his legs, something the detectives figured his parents would've paid better attention to since he was a legacy in the school.

"Did you see him leave school today?" Elliot asked.

"Yeah."

"Did you see the man he was with?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Was the man his dad?" Olivia asked.

"What's this about?" Anton asked.

"Do you recognize this man?" Elliot showed Anton the same picture he'd shown the women.

"Yeah, that's David's dad," Anton told them.

The two detectives looked at each other.

"You're sure?" Olivia asked. "Because we showed your principal and your teacher this picture, and they said it's definitely _not_ David's dad."

"That was a secret," Anton said. "His dad couldn't get off work to pick him up, so his uncle did."

"Who's his uncle?" Olivia asked.

"Guy's name is Roger," the boy told them.

"What's he look like?" Elliot asked.

"About your height, with a crew cut."

"Why was it a secret?" Olivia asked.

"Man, David's dad _never_ came here, his uncle came to enroll him, passed himself off as his dad," Anton said.

"How do you know that?" Elliot asked.

"David told me."

"Then how did you know this is his dad?" Olivia held up the picture.

"I saw him a couple times."

"I thought you said he never came here," Elliot said.

"Naw, man, at his house," Anton said.

"What'd you guys do there?" Olivia asked.

Anton snorted. "His dad won't let him have a computer, his uncle took us out to play baseball."

"Anton," Elliot said bluntly, "David's dad is dead. And now David and his uncle are missing."

"What?" the boy moved back on the bench. "No way."

"Did David ever say anything about them going somewhere?" Olivia asked.

"No way," Anton shook his head. "What happened?"

"That's what we're trying to find out," Elliot said.

"Oh man," Anton ran a hand over his hair. "David's gotta be alright, right?"

* * *

"Nothing about this case is making any sense," Elliot told Cragen when they got back to the squad room.

"It doesn't even look like our case," Cragen said, "Homicide can take the dad, Missing Persons can take the son and the uncle."

"Captain, something very weird is going on," Elliot said, "all we saw were pictures of the dad and the kid, who is this uncle?"

"When everybody got done tossing the house," Olivia hung up the phone at her desk, "they found one master bedroom with Moll's belongings and his son's room with all of his stuff there, clothes, comic books, sports equipment, movies…there were five additional bedrooms with no personal effects that look like they haven't been used."

"Guest rooms, I figured a place that size would have a dozen of them," Cragen said. "So where was the uncle, camping out on the couch?"

"Either way it sounds like Uncle Roger checked out and took the kid with him, the question is why?" Elliot asked.

"What about the death threats the doctor got?" Cragen asked.

"I thought you just said this isn't our case," Munch said as he walked by.

"That doesn't mean I'm not curious, John," Cragen answered.

"TARU's going over the dad's computer, so far getting a lot of medical jargon nobody can understand but not much else," Fin said.

"I can understand wanting to protect your kid from personal attacks, but is anybody else finding it a little weird he doesn't let his kid have a phone or a computer?" Cragen asked.

"That's every parent's dream," Elliot said, "keep them unplugged so all the child molesters in cyber space can't get a chance at them. But I also know it's not practical. Kids need computers for schoolwork and no parent wants their kid unsupervised without a way to directly contact them."

"Maybe it wasn't to keep him shielded from death threats," Olivia said, "it sounds more like this guy wanted his son to have as little of a digital footprint as possible."

"Maybe Dad's just old fashioned," Cragen said.

"Captain, you didn't see this place," Elliot said, "six foot plasma TV, brand new Lexus in the driveway."

"So he's a rich bastard."

"And he's not going to spoil his kid too?" Elliot replied.

"Wait, wait, wait," Olivia thought of something, "how many cars are registered to this guy?"

Elliot's eyes widened, "There was only one car in the driveway, there are two men living there, Roger's got the other car."

"Check with the DMV," Cragen told Olivia.

"On it," Olivia said as she picked up the receiver on her desk phone.

"So what're we thinking?" Cragen asked, "Roger kills his brother and kidnaps the boy?"

"Doesn't make a lot of sense but it's not the strangest case we ever had," Elliot said.

"Get back to the crime scene and canvas the neighbors," Cragen said.

"The unis already did that."

"I don't care, do it anyway, maybe we can catch somebody who wasn't home the first time," the captain explained.

* * *

"How well do you know your neighbors, the Molls?" Elliot asked the woman living directly across from the doctor's house.

"Enough to say hi, not much else," the short middle aged woman in a housecoat and slippers answered.

"How many people living there?"

"Two men and a boy…they're brothers, you know."

"Yeah, I know," Elliot said, "how long they been living here?"

"The overall family's lived there for five years," the woman answered.

Elliot blinked. "You sure of that?"

"Trust me, after the nightmares that lived there before that, wild parties all hours of the night, people coming and going until the crack of dawn."

"None of that now?" Elliot asked.

"I never saw so much as one woman set foot in that house, they were a breath of fresh air, quiet, kept to themselves, never see that kid running around like a hooligan."

"So the doctor was divorced?" Elliot asked.

"No," the woman answered. "when they moved in originally it was the doctor, his wife and their son. Shortly after they moved in, the ambulance came for her one night. She never came home. Bout a year later her death was announced in the newspaper. That's when the brother came to live with them. The poor boy. I guess with the doctor's work hours he needs somebody to help him raise his son."

"He _did_ anyway," Elliot commented. "Were you here earlier, ma'am?"

"No, I had to go over to my sister's early this morning, she fell in the tub and threw her back out, had to wait for her good for nothing kids to come home and take care of her, I just got back half an hour ago."

"You don't say," he replied, wishing she wouldn't say anymore. He cleared his throat and asked, "Is that the only car that's usually over there?"

"No, there's another one. A…I'm not sure about the make and model, but it was an older car, four seater, four doors, black, kind of looked like a Town car."

Elliot smiled and thanked the woman for her time. He headed down the steps and met Olivia who was coming over from across the street.

"Get anything?" he asked.

"Nobody saw or heard anything," she said, "you?"

"Yeah, the doctor's wife died four years ago, then all of a sudden Uncle Roger pops up, and the car that's missing is an older model Town car."

"Not much to go on," Olivia said.

"Better than we had," Elliot said, "let's check back in at the squad and see what the DMV came up with."

* * *

"There's only one car registered to Doctor Moll," Cragen told the detectives when they returned, "the white Lexus."

"Then Roger must own the other car," Olivia said.

"Tried that, bad news," Don said, "DMV has no record of any Roger Moll."

"That's not possible," Olivia said.

"It's not a mistake, I double checked," he responded.

"So if the doctor only owns one car and nobody else ever goes to that house, who owns the black car?" Elliot asked.

"Maybe someone else in the family," Fin suggested, "maybe Roger borrowed it off a cousin."

"Maybe it was registered in his wife's name," Olivia said.

"No such luck," Cragen shook his head. "In any case the title would've been transferred over to her husband after her death, wouldn't it?"

"Unless he's the absent minded professor type," Elliot said, "what about his finances?"

"Still checking, so far he's got enough in the bank to choke a cow with, but no outstanding debts, he doesn't seem to owe anybody money…"

"But they also didn't find any in the house," Olivia said. "Not more than a couple thousand bucks anyway."

"Nobody's going to kill over that, and if they were they would've taken it with them," Fin said.

"Well _who_ is going to hate a cancer researcher enough to shoot him point blank in the back of the head?" Cragen asked. "If it was the family member of a patient, wouldn't they want him to suffer long enough to see it coming?"

"When we find that out we'll have the killer," Elliot replied.

Munch hung up the phone at his desk and stood up, stopping to stretch and make his back crick. "Warner called and wants you guys down at the morgue."

"She find something?" Olivia asked.

"If I knew that, you probably wouldn't have to go down there, would you?" he replied. "All the same I doubt she just wants to shoot the breeze."

* * *

"Your victim shows no sign of sexual assault, and aside from the .38 sized hole in the back of his skull, no signs of physical assault either, no hematomas, no scars, no defensive wounds, this guy never broke a single bone in his whole life," Warner told the detectives.

"Lucky stiff," Elliot commented.

"I dug out the slug and sent it to the lab for testing," she said, "with any luck ballistics will be able to match it."

"That'd be too much to hope for," Elliot said, "this is a little too neat and tidy to be some random gang hit by some thug who's already popped a few people."

"Did you find anything else that could help us identify the killer?" Olivia asked.

"All I can tell you is that the shooter stood far enough back that there's no powder burns in the wound or his clothes, no stippling, and…a toxicology report found trace amounts of gin in his system, but I plucked a few hairs for additional tests…thank his barber, hair grows an average one inch per month, last time he got it cut a few longer strands were missed, over the past month he had ingested several big dollar painkillers and sleeping pills."

"How much?" Elliot asked.

"More than moderate use, not enough or often enough to be addicted, organs showed no wear and tear from long term use, most likely just a recreational user," Warner answered.

"Being a doctor that's not a big surprise," he said.

"Sorry guys, this is one of the cleanest cut murders I've ever seen," Melinda told them.

"Doesn't make our job any easier," Elliot said.

"Can you run his DNA to see if there are any relatives in the system?" Olivia asked, "we need to find somebody in the family to talk to."

"Already did, I'm waiting to see what pops up," the medical examiner said.


	3. Chapter 3

Maria Gonzalez, a woman in her mid to late 40s, the cleaning woman who had reported finding Dr. Moll's body, sat on a stool in her kitchen and let out a big exhale.

"When I get home and realize I forget to mention Dr. Moll's brother, I was horrified," she told Fin and Munch, "please no think I was...obstructing investigation."

"Not at all, it's perfectly natural," Munch assured her, "stumbling on a murder scene is a big shock."

"I just saw Dr. Moll and…I just thought about David," Maria said. She looked at the two detectives both fearfully and hopefully and asked, "Did you find him?"

"Not yet, we're still working on it," Fin said. "What can you tell us about Roger?"

The cleaning woman laughed a little. "Mr. Moll nice man, helps."

"Helps what?"

"Helps clean," she answered, "he do all the dishes, he cook."

"Sounds like a sweet deal," Munch commented. "Does he have an actual job?"

"No, he stay home with David while Dr. Moll works," she explained.

"Even sweeter," Fin noted. "How long have you worked for the Molls?"

"Three years."

"So you never knew Dr. Moll's wife?"

She shook her head. "I replace last woman."

"Who was she?"

"Uh, she send Christmas card, Doctor keep."

"Would you know where it is?" Fin asked.

"Si," she nodded.

"Looks like we're going back to the crime scene," Munch said.

"I'll call Liv and Elliot, I've got an idea," Fin told him.

* * *

Fin and Munch steered the cleaning woman clear of the crime scene in the living room, she took them to the doctor's home office and pulled the Christmas card out from a mess of papers. It was a family picture Christmas card featuring a mother, father, grandmother, and three children of varying ages. The family name was Valdez and the card was signed Marisol.

"Do you know where Marisol lives?" Munch asked.

"No, sorry," Maria said.

"Can you tell if anything is missing around the house?" Fin asked.

"I take look," she said and left the office.

"Oh wait," Munch followed after her, "we've been all over this house, we haven't been able to find a single picture of Dr. Moll's brother, _are_ there any?"

"He no like photographed," Maria said, "uh, but there was one."

"You know where it is?" Fin asked hopefully.

"Yah," she answered, "I know…David terrible about bookmarks."

She went over to the dining room and picked up an old large hardback copy of Tarzan of the Apes. There was a bookmark sticking out of the middle of the book, she pulled it out and handed a photo to the detectives.

The picture featured Steven Moll, David, and a man fitting the given description of Roger. He was as tall as the doctor, built similarly, had a clean cut complexion, buzzed dark hair, but unlike the doctor who looked dressed for business, Roger was dressed in khaki cargo shorts and a gray T-shirt.

"Where was this taken?" Fin asked.

"Last year on vacation in safari," Maria told them.

"In Africa?"

"No, no, safari park."

"Oh you mean the one in California?"

"Si, that the one."

"Mrs. Gonzalez," Olivia came down the stairs, "you know the house pretty well, can you tell us if anything is missing from David's room upstairs?"

The cleaning woman followed Olivia up the stairs with Munch and Fin trailing behind her.

David's bedroom was more or less the ultimate 12 year old boy's room, the bed wasn't made, the floor was scattered with older kids' toys, worn out sneakers, dirty clothes, a baseball bat, a catcher's mitt, a skateboard, a set of roller blades, a squash racket, a lacrosse stick, there was a leaning stack of CDs on the dresser next to a boombox, a 10 inch TV on the other side, a stack of comic books piled on his desk, and various other odds and ends typical of an adolescent boy laying around everywhere.

Maria laughed and said, "Oh yeah, this David's room."

"The only room in the whole house that looks lived in," Munch noted.

"Si, si, Dr. Moll never approve, luckily he don't look until after I clean," she explained.

"Is anything missing?" Olivia asked.

"How could you tell?" Elliot responded.

Maria looked over the contents of the room, then pulled open the closet door, then looked through the dresser drawers, and shook her head.

"No, nothing missing," she said.

"Where did Roger stay?" Olivia asked.

The cleaning woman led them down the hall to another room. A guest room that looked like it hadn't ever been lived in.

"Mr. Moll's things gone," she said.

"What _was_ here?" Fin asked.

"Clothes, cologne, weights," Maria nudged her toe against a spot on the floor, "always kick, never fail, _always_ kick."

"There's no indention in the carpet," Elliot realized.

"Get CSU back here and tell them to take the bedding for any DNA he may have left behind," Olivia said, "skin cells, dandruff, anything."

"Did Mr. Moll have any girlfriends over?" Elliot asked the cleaning woman.

"No, Roger no bring women home," Maria said as she left the room.

"That don't mean nothing," Fin said, "They could still find semen traces on the bed."

"Let's track down this Marisol Valdez and see what she has to say," Olivia said.

* * *

Marisol Valdez was a woman in her early 30s who knelt down on the living room floor to pick up her youngest child's toys as she told the detectives, "That's right, I worked for the Molls for three years. I was cleaning houses to raise money to pay for the continuing education I signed up for once I finished what my student vista would cover, so I could become a citizen who actually had prospects. Now I'm an ESL teacher, the only toilets I scrub are my own."

"What was your impression of the Moll family?" Elliot asked.

"Nice wife, cute boy, sad what happened," she said.

"What did happen?" Olivia asked.

"Mrs. Moll was fine when I first started working there, then about a year later she started feeling sick, she had some disease…"

"Cancer?" Elliot asked.

"That would be ironic, wouldn't it?" she asked as she dumped the toys in a box in the corner and closed the lid, "Doctor who specializes in cancer drugs and can't save his wife…no, it was one of those diseases named after somebody, I can't remember what. She got really bad over the next year, finally she had to be hospitalized and was put on life support, they waited a couple weeks hoping for a change, then they pulled the plug. That poor boy, he was inconsolable, he cried for two weeks."

"What about Dr. Moll?"

"Well he was never around to begin with, and he sure as hell wasn't there after she died," Marisol answered. "So I became the mother figure in the house. I guess he figured if he kept working he wouldn't have time to miss her, but it sure didn't do David any favors. That kid needed somebody around him all the time, he'd have panic attacks if he was ever left alone, and I was only there until 5, but I started staying overnight because his dad wouldn't get home until midnight."

"So that explains Roger moving in," Elliot said.

"Oh yeah," Marisol replied dryly. "Good old, dependable, trustworthy Roger."

"I'm guessing you didn't like him," Olivia said. "Did something happen?"

"I guess you could say that."

"Did he try anything with you?" Elliot asked.

She looked at the two detectives with an almost amused look on her face and catching on to their implication finally said, "Oh no, nothing like that. _No_. I mean don't get me wrong, Roger was a nice guy, he always helped me when I cooked dinner, he always did the dishes. Dr. Moll had tutors coming to work with David every day, so we centered the sessions in the kitchen so we could keep an eye on them. And David sure looked up to him, those two were closer than he was with his own dad."

"So what went wrong?" Elliot asked.

"You were the only woman regularly in the house, was there any unwanted attention?" Olivia asked.

"No, nothing like that," she shook her head, "there was a little harmless flirting but it never went past a few innuendos, you know, just making conversation to lighten things up."

"But you left."

"It wasn't anything he _did_ , it was just the whole arrangement that made me feel uneasy," Marisol answered.

"How so?" Elliot asked.

"Two weeks after Mrs. Moll dies, in comes Roger, the doctor's brother who hasn't been in the picture for years," Marisol explained. "His brother's wife has been sick for a year, where's he been? Dr. Moll would be gone sometimes, out of town, or out of the country, he said on business but I don't know for what…so it was just me and Mrs. Moll and David. Before she got bad she was saying how hard it would be on David because they didn't have any other family, their parents were all dead and neither of them had siblings."

"You're sure of that?" Elliot asked.

"I didn't forget," Marisol told them, "she said _no_ other family. I stayed on for a year for David's sake because he was still adjusting to losing his mom, but I finally had to leave because the whole thing made me uncomfortable. If Dr. Moll swings that way, fine, but at least have the guts to admit it instead of telling this kid this new guy's his uncle."

"O-kay," Elliot was starting to feel a little sick. "Did either of the men ever bring anyone home?"

"No, before everything clicked I wasn't surprised about the doctor, he'd just lost his wife, but his 'brother' never brought a woman home either, that's when I started adding it all up."

"Uh huh," Elliot was never comfortable during these kinds of conversations, no matter how many times he'd done it on the job. "So they didn't bring any women home, did they ever bring any other guys home?"

"No, nobody," Marisol answered. "I felt bad for leaving David but he seemed to be doing alright, and as much as I don't like what was going on, I know it's not illegal so there wasn't anything I could do, though God knows what that poor kid's been a witness to over the years. He really believes that that man is his dad's brother."

"Yet you still sent a card last year," Elliot pointed out.

"I did that for David more than anything, I didn't want him to think that everybody normal in his life had abandoned him," she said.

* * *

"Got a big problem," Olivia told Cragen and the rest of the squad as she pointed to the victim's picture on the board. "The ex housekeeper says that Moll never had a brother."

"That actually jives with what we found out about Roger Moll," Munch said, "nothing, no property in his name, no utilities, no taxes filed, no arrests, no social security number, not even a birth certificate."

"So who the hell was the guy living with them?" Fin asked.

"I don't know but something else seems suspicious," Elliot said, "when we went back to canvas the neighborhood, a woman across the street said the family had lived there five years, but the dad told the principal at David's school that they moved around a lot and his work didn't permit him to put down roots until recently."

"Not even his dad, this fictional uncle posing as the dad," Olivia pointed out.

"Got more bad news," Fin said, "whoever this guy is, he's no fool. Mrs. Gonzalez said there's food missing from the kitchen, a whole loaf of bread's gone and a pound of deli chicken was gone from the fridge. There was a case of bottled water last time she was there, the whole thing's gone."

"He's smart, he knows not to stop at convenience stores for food because of the surveillance cameras," Elliot said.

"He's driving an older car, no GPS on it, so there's no way to track his movements," Fin said.

"And with no name, we can't track his cell phone either," Olivia added.

"CSU went back to the house _again_ to take Dr. Moll's bed sheets and to dust 'Roger's' room for prints, this guy may be good but he was there for four years, he can't erase every fingerprint he ever left and there's no place more likely than his own room," Cragen told his detectives.

"But what do we do in the meantime?" Olivia asked.

"We have to find out who the hell this guy is," Elliot said.

"And then figure out why he killed the dad and took the kid," Munch added.

"And where," Fin said.

"Captain, I need a minute," Elliot said, "I feel the need to do a quick rosary. Maybe a miracle will fall on us and we can find this guy before things get any worse."

"Say one for me too," Munch suggested.

"I'm with the housekeeper on this one," Cragen told Olivia, "People are still narrow minded but not as bad as they used to be, why would a guy call his boyfriend his brother instead of just coming out? He's an affluent doctor who saves lives, he lives in a multi million dollar mansion and isn't bothered by his neighbors…"

"Though there're still the death threats," Olivia said, "maybe getting them because of his work is different than getting them because of his sexual orientation."

"Either way he's rich enough he can afford the best security there is," Cragen said, "wouldn't it be easier to just tell the world, and his son, the truth?"

"Everybody says this kid lost it when his mom died, it would be confusing enough for him to comprehend his dad dating another woman after her death, but a _man_?" Elliot asked.

"Something still doesn't gel," Fin said. "Marisol said Roger was moving in 2 weeks after Mrs. Moll died, so where did he and the doctor meet?"

"Maybe they were seeing each other before she died," Munch guessed.

"Definitely can't tell your 8 year old son _that_ ," Olivia said.

"Might be though," Elliot said, "maybe he wasn't faithful through their whole marriage."

"Just because he's bisexual doesn't mean he's a total degenerate," Olivia felt a need to point out.

"Straight men do it all the time," Elliot said, "isn't that what this whole thing's about? Equality between all sexualities? Why should we be inclined to think somebody who plays both teams isn't just as likely to stray?"

"Still, why would this guy kill his boyfriend and run off with his kid?" Cragen asked.

"Well despite how far we've come where gay rights are concerned, custodial issues with two people the state has a hard time recognizing as a legitimate couple are still a bitch," Elliot said, "maybe they had a falling out, 2nd guy decides to take David for himself and make _sure_ Steven can't get him back." He felt some of the eyes in the room on him and decided to point out, "Hey it's not like we haven't seen it all the time in this line of work, straight parents and gay. When somebody gets pushed too far and threatened with losing the kid they think of their own, they can take drastic measures."

Cragen looked around at his detectives and noticed that Olivia was looking towards the floor and breathing harder, looking like she'd just been punched in the gut.

"You alright, Olivia?" he asked.

She looked at him, and the others and said, "I just thought of something. What if we were wrong about this from the start? What if these two men weren't sleeping with each other?"

The others looked around the room at their fellow SVU detectives and slowly starting to realize what she was saying.

"What if the dad and this guy are both pedophiles and they're sharing the kid?" Elliot voiced the thought everybody had in mind but nobody had wanted to give voice to.

"We've definitely seen plenty of _that_ in this line of work," Munch reluctantly agreed, then added, "but never seen two of them living together."

"But it does make for an easy cover," Fin said, "people already don't want to suspect parents could do that to their own kids, the dad having a brother would especially keep them under the radar."

"But we're still back to square one," Elliot said, "Why'd the other guy whack the dad?"

"They still could've had a falling out," Fin suggested, "second guy still figures why not take off with the kid? That way he wouldn't have to share him with anyone."

"Alright, we're going to need some help on this," Cragen said, "I'm calling in reinforcements."

"Who? The FBI?" Elliot asked.

"No, we need to get in both of these guys' heads, I'm going to call in Huang and Skoda."

"This should be interesting," Munch commented.

The phone at his desk rang and he went to answer it while everybody else talked amongst themselves about what their next move was.

"We got a break," Munch said as he hung up the phone, "they matched the fingerprints to a name."

"Guy been arrested?" Elliot asked.

"No, you're not going to believe this one," Munch answered. "And apparently, we have to go meet with the guy who supplied the information."


	4. Chapter 4

"'Roger Moll' is John Clancy, he's one of our employees," Evan Beck, a man in his late 40s and wearing it as well as the black designer suit he currently had on, the president of SafeTCorp, told the detectives. "Why are you trying to identify him?"

"How about you go first and explain what exactly it is your company does?" Elliot returned.

"In short, bodyguards," he answered.

"That's it?" Munch asked as he looked around the lobby of the building and noticed it was barren except for a front desk, two chairs, two potted plants in the corners and some questionable artwork on the walls.

"Follow me." Beck led the detectives through one door, down a hall, through another door, down another hall, and led them to a room full of computers and people working at them.

"As the world progresses, so does the bodyguard business, it's not like the old days where you just hired some thug bigger than you to jump in front of a gun or knife," Beck explained. "We subject our employees to 10 months of intense training for this job, to go anywhere in the world in a moment's notice, whole new identity, face any one of a hundred potential threats."

"For who?" Olivia asked.

"Anybody who can afford the $100,000 retainer."

Olivia did a combination whistle and pained exhale.

"Excuse me if I'm cynical," Munch said.

"Why should today be any different?" Fin replied.

"If somebody really believes their life is in enough danger, they generally find a way to come up with the retainer," Beck told them. "We're not just talking politicians and rock stars and athletes, our services are open to anybody who needs our services and can afford our services, lawyers, doctors, judges…"

"And all the poorer class working saps can just call 911 and hope and pray that we get there quicker than the 30 minutes it's going to take for their attacker to rape, murder and dismember them and be long gone in the wind before we show up to take pictures of their bloody corpses, because the politicians in this state decided it was a bad idea for everyday people to have lenient access to firearms for their own personal safety, right?" Munch asked.

"You'd be surprised the people who can afford our rates," Beck said, "and we're well worth it. If Kennedy had one of our men assigned to his protection, he would still be alive."

"Assuming they were on the right payroll," Munch responded.

"Ignore him, he's always like this," Fin said.

"So what is all this?" Olivia asked.

"The memory bank of our clientele. We keep a record of everything, the client's whole family, their life history, their associates, any trips they take, where they go, what threats they receive, what red flags pop up, everything is updated regularly."

"How regularly?" Elliot asked.

"If things are uneventful, our bodyguards check in once a week to update, if anything noteworthy occurs, they report in every day," Beck said.

"When was the last time you got an update about Dr. Steven Moll?" Elliot asked.

"I can't answer that."

"Sir, all due respect, he was murdered this morning, your employee is missing, so is Moll's son, and besides there's no such thing as bodyguard/client privilege," Elliot said.

That announcement stopped the company president dead in his tracks.

"My God," he said in shock.

"So let's try this again, when was the last time Clancy checked in?" Olivia asked.

"Five days ago, when he did there was nothing to report," Beck told them as he motioned for them to follow him to his office. "What happened?"

"That's what we're trying to find out," Elliot said, "so just to be clear, it was your idea that John pass himself off as Steven's brother?"

"Yes, that's how we work, we slide our bodyguards into our client's everyday life as a family member, housekeeper, somebody whose sudden appearance is reasonably explained without drawing particular attention. Our clients are already a target, an obvious bodyguard would stick out like a sore thumb, but this way the people threatening our clients either don't pay attention to an extended family member or just think they have another unsuspecting sitting duck to contend with, it works."

"Why was John assigned to the Moll family for so long?" Olivia asked.

"It's standard protocol that a bodyguard is assigned to each case up to five years if necessary."

"Why so long?" Elliot asked as they reached Beck's office and saw it was furnished better than the D.A.'s office.

"For every stalker that our men help get locked up, there're 20 more where they came from, depending on the person there's no shortage of sociopaths targeting them," Beck answered as he shut the door behind them and motioned for the detectives to sit down. "Steven Moll stressed his concerns for his son's safety, asked if we could make arrangements to have somebody assigned to them until David was 18."

"How credible were the threats?" Olivia asked.

"In the four years John lived with Steven and his son, he personally apprehended nine, three of them chucked bricks through the front window, one of them was two inches from David's head. The last one before we assigned John to the case, sent emails to Steven's home computer threatening to rape and mutilate David, and he was only 8 years old."

"Catch that one?"

"Yeah, got a sympathetic judge, he's doing 10 years," Beck answered.

"Did David know Clancy wasn't his dad's brother?"

"No, you know how it is, one slip and the whole cover's blown, it's just easier for an 8 year old to believe the guy who's moving in is his real uncle," Beck said.

"All of this because some experimental cancer drugs didn't work?" Elliot asked.

"It doesn't matter _why_ somebody's targeted," Beck told the detectives. "The way these bastards' minds operate, all somebody has to do is smile at some of them, suddenly they're going to spend the rest of their life looking over their shoulder. Sometimes not even that much, you remember that woman shot by an obsessed fan who watched her on TV every day, she never even met him."

"How common are those in your business?" Olivia asked.

"More than you think," he answered. "People don't need protection from weapons, they need protection from every other son of a bitch walking the streets. In the hands of the right psycho, _anything_ can be a deadly weapon."

"Guns are still a favorite for many though," Elliot commented.

"So is anything sharp and pointy," Beck responded. "We've lost a few men in this line of work, the last one got his carotid artery severed when he threw himself in front of a client who was face to face with a stalker who pulled out a broken shard from a vodka bottle."

Olivia sat still in her seat but still slightly cringed at that comment.

"But you…you don't think John's responsible for Steven's death," Beck looked like he couldn't even comprehend such an idea.

"What we know is that Steven was killed this morning, after that happened, John packed up all his stuff, went to the school, picked up David, and nobody has seen either of them since," Elliot said. "Your bodyguards carry guns?"

"Of course."

"Gun's missing, so's the shell casing," Elliot said.

"If something happened and somebody else came in and killed Steven, where would John take David?" Olivia asked.

"Here," Beck answered. "That was always the plan, if anything happened to the doctor, his son would be brought here until we could assess the situation."

"Well it took us 20 minutes to get here," Elliot told Beck, "and John's been in the wind for over 2 hours. Something tells me he's not coming in."

"My God…I just can't believe this," Beck said.

"Well we need to find him so we can clear up what did happen," Olivia said.

Beck stood up and said, "I'll see what our techs can find out."

"About what?" Elliot asked, "That car you issued him is so old it doesn't have GPS, you can't track it."

"We don't need it, we put our own tracking devices on the cars, that way nobody else can hack the information," Beck explained.

"Does Steven have a cell phone?" Olivia asked.

"Of course."

"See if you can pick up where it is," Elliot said, "though if this guy's as smart as he's supposed to be, he probably ditched it somewhere along with the gun."

"And if you want to save yourself the trouble of a subpoena and a personal visit from the ADA, we'll be needing all the files you have on Clancy for our own investigation," Munch added.

* * *

"SafeTCorp can't get a hit on Clancy's cell phone activity, he deactivated the tracking device on the car, there is no telling where this guy is," Elliot explained to Cragen.

"I honestly don't know if we're supposed to be relieved these two weren't sleeping together or not," Olivia said.

"Do we know that for fact?" Munch asked.

"Where the DNA on the sheets was concerned anyway," Fin said.

"But _why_ would a bodyguard kill the man he's being paid to protect?" Cragen asked.

"Maybe somebody got to him, offered him more money to whack the doc," Elliot guessed.

"And take the kid?" Cragen asked.

"David _was_ targeted in several of the threats made to the doctor," Olivia held up a stack of paper, "these are all records of the threats made against both of them while Clancy was assigned to them."

"Anything that matches with what happened?" Don asked her.

"A lot of 'I'm going to slice you up', a lot of 'I'm going to destroy your child and force you to watch', nothing about 'I'm going to shoot you in the back of the head', yet," she replied.

"Where're the headshrinkers that are supposed to be helping us get a line on this guy's psyche?" Munch asked.

"Here they come now," Fin said.

The detectives looked and saw Skoda and Huang coming their way.

"Thanks for coming, guys," Cragen said, "you wouldn't believe how crazy things are right now."

"You weren't very clear on the phone, what exactly is going on?" Skoda asked.

Cragen gestured to two large stacks of folders on a vacant table and told the two psychiatrists, "I need you to get a reading on the guy in these reports. We think he executed the man he was assigned to be a bodyguard for, and kidnapped his 12 year old son, and we are scrambling to figure out where he could've taken the kid and what he plans to do with him."

"When did this happen?" George asked.

"Dad was shot this morning, the kid was taken from his school when everybody got out," Elliot answered.

"We'll do what we can," he said.

"This guy's been trained to move under the radar, he's not going to risk being picked up on a security camera in an airport, a train station, you name it," Elliot said, "so wherever he's taking the kid it has to be within driving range."

"That's not saying much," Fin said, "that guy Beck said they' guards are ordered to keep their gas tanks full every day incase they have to move out ASAP."

"Still, sooner or later he has to pop up on some toll booth cam, red light cam, somewhere," Cragen said, "everybody from here to New Jersey has been put on alert and issued pictures of John Clancy and David Moll. He's been trained to kill so everybody is being advised not to approach him."

"Won't stop a bunch of idiots who want to be a damn hero," Munch spoke up.

"We're not going to the press with it though," Cragen said.

"Why not?" Skoda asked.

"Too much of a security risk, this guy's been trained in a dozen different ways to kill somebody, if David is still alive, we don't need this guy feeling the heat and deciding to kill him anyway for the hell of it," Cragen explained. "If he was already in the process of kidnapping the kid, that makes the dad's death Murder 1, he's already facing the needle, they can't kill him anymore for 2 victims than 1."

* * *

Cragen left his office to stretch his legs and get another cup of coffee, and on the way saw Emil and George still at the table, each looking through different files, and they seemed to be disagreeing on something, persistently.

"Something the matter?" he asked as he approached them.

The two psychiatrists looked at the captain and George took the diplomatic approach and said, "Just some professional differences."

"Not enough that I'd worry about it compromising our analysis though," Skoda added.

"Got anything that we can use?" Cragen asked.

Huang shook his head and closed a folder. "I'm not seeing anything that could answer why he'd kill Steven Moll, but if he did take David, in his own mind there has to be a good reason for it."

"Don't criminals always think so?"

"Captain, the background checks potential employees are subjected to at this company go beyond anything I've seen short of joining the FBI. They spend nearly a year being prepped for this job, they're subjected to mental evaluation every month, drug tests, they take a brain scan of everybody who signs up, and they do additional scans every year these people are on the job." George picked up a copy of an MRI and showed Cragen. "If John Clancy did foster any pedophiliac tendencies, there would be some inclination visible in this scan, but as you can see, his brain looks just like every other normal person's."

"Actually I don't see a lot of people's brains, but I'll take your word for it," Cragen replied. "Emil, you agree with this?"

Skoda nodded, "This isn't what you'd call a 'bad' brain, it's atypical of any murderer or rapist I've ever seen get scanned, there's no damage, no concussions, no tumors, so there's nothing here that could be impairing his ability to appreciate his actions or his impulse control. If he _did_ do what you say he did, he knew full well what he was doing and what more _why_ he did it."

"All of which doesn't do us any good unless we can figure out where they are and if the kid's alright," Don told him.

"Did you know he was adopted?" Skoda asked.

"What?" Cragen wasn't sure what that had to do with anything.

"It's in his file, his birth mother was an unwed teenager, he was adopted at 1 year old, his adopted mother was a cop, adopted father was a repairman."

"Anything in there about his birth mother's history?" Cragen asked, "Any chance this is one of those nature/nurture disputes gone wrong?"

"No record of family mental illness, no record of anybody in the family being arrested, and last I checked it wasn't mental disease or a felony to be a pregnant 16 year old," Skoda said. "Everywhere you look he comes up clean."

"He's divorced," Huang said.

"What?" Cragen wasn't sure why, but that one struck him as a possible angle.

"The agency keeps track of everybody involved with their employees…did you know it's actually SafeTCorp's protocol none of their bodyguards can be married at the time of their employment?"

"Isn't that illegal?" Cragen asked.

"There're no regulations against the people doing clerical work and updating the compute records, it's only the bodyguards themselves that can't be involved with spouses. Independent companies write their own policies, it may bend the laws of discrimination but who's going to stop it?" Huang asked, "Especially if it proves effective."

"Remember that movie 'The Andromeda Strain'?" Skoda asked Cragen, "Think back, the hypothesis that unmarried men are better candidates to make crucial choices in times of crisis. And here's a company where you could spend 5 years posing as the member of some other family, maybe it's not justifiable but it's definitely understandable."

"What about his wife?" Cragen asked Huang.

"Ex-wife…they divorced 3 years before he signed up with the company, no children."

"Does it say _why_ they divorced?"

"No."

"How long were they married?" Skoda asked.

"8 years," Huang answered.

"8 years and no kids?" Skoda said. "Either they had some medical help there…"

"Or his little swimmers just weren't up to snuff, maybe that's why they divorced," Cragen said, and added cynically, "maybe that's why he went nuts and kidnapped the kid he was assigned to protect, he was a surrogate for the kid Clancy could never have, is that what you're trying to say?"

"Not exactly but it is one theory," Skoda replied.

"Oh that's just great, that's beautiful," Cragen dryly commented. "So what do we do, find the address for his ex and stake out the house and see if he comes in the door saying 'It's a boy, let's get back together'?"

Emil slowly moved his chair back and stood up and looked across the table and stared Cragen dead in the eye.

"I understand you're under a lot of pressure to find this boy and solve this case, and I understand how critical it is to find a missing child in the first 48 hours, and I can also appreciate how maddening this is for you, but you called us here as a professional courtesy to help _you_ find this guy, and to do that we have to work every angle possible in our field, and if you don't like it, then _shut up_ and let us do our job."

George remained seated at the table, not saying a word, his eyes widened in surprise at the scene before him, and despite his attempt to maintain a straight face as he went back to his work, anybody passing by would've noticed the lines around his mouth as an unmistakable yet futile attempt to suppress an amused smile. Don just stood there for a minute with a dumbstruck look on his face, not able to think of a single word to say in response.

* * *

Casey Novak just happened to be dropping by the SVU squad room to deliver a search warrant on an unrelated case when she got caught up in the ongoing conversation about the case.

"Wait, wait," she said after getting three earfuls of it and still trying to make some sense of it all, "let me get this straight, you're saying the government bodyguard killed Dr. Quest and kidnapped Jonny?"

"And here I thought I was the only one old enough to remember that cartoon," Munch said, "yes, Counselor, that's the long and short of it."

"Okay, anybody got a motive we can go on?" she asked.

"Greed's always a favorite, maybe Dr. Zin put in the highest bid for the boy's head," Munch commented.

"We've been combing through all the reported threats the doctor accumulated over the years," Olivia said, "at least half of them are directly aimed at David."

"The ratio we've got so far is 25% threats against the doctor's life and limb, 25% against the boy's, and the other half against both of them at once," Munch pointed out.

"What do the bodyguard's finances look like?" Casey asked.

"Well there's a reason this job is more demanding than the army, it pays a better salary and pension," Elliot held up a report, "John Clancy has a five figure paycheck directly deposited into his bank account every month."

"How is that possible?" Casey asked.

"Well it's $100,000 just to get in the door, then you're charged based on how many days, weeks or years the bodyguard works for you," Elliot said, "it's a racket, the only people who could afford this protection are people who can afford to move into Fort Knox."

"Yet they're doing very well," Olivia said, "so well that they're threatening legal action against us if we go public with the story of Moll's death _or_ Clancy and David's disappearance."

"Yeah, not that we would anyway because we don't want to push this guy's button and risk him killing the kid, but all the same if word gets out a bodyguard killed his client, the whole company's gonna fold," Elliot added.

"Even if you're raking in over 100K a year, somebody offers you that in one lump sum, it's going to be one hell of a temptation," Fin said.

"These guys are prepped to head anywhere in the world in a moment's notice with fake IDs and passports out the wazoo, he gets a payoff like that, he's out of the country and it's ta-ta John Clancy, hello who the hell ever," Munch pointed out.

"What do we know about this guy?" Casey asked.

"Everything and nothing," Munch answered. "The Captain called in the Dynamic Duo, Skoda and Huang have been reading over everything in Clancy's file for three hours now."

"There's that much on him?"

"Liability, they can't afford to leave any stone unturned," Elliot said.

"So what do they have to say about it?" Casey asked.

"Unfortunately not a whole lot," Huang said as he wandered into the conversation.

"How's it going?" Olivia asked.

Huang managed a small smile that wasn't genuine and told the detectives, "Let's just say that Emil and I don't see things eye to eye on this case."

"Got anything we can work with?" Elliot asked.

"I have a theory as to why he may have taken David," Huang explained.

"Let's hear it," Casey said.

"You're familiar with the phrase 'tell a lie often enough and it becomes the truth'? John Clancy was abandoned by his birth mother, adopted, the mother he grew up knowing was a cop, cop parents often beget cop children."

"I know that's right," Elliot commented.

Huang continued, "So I questioned why Clancy chose work as a bodyguard instead of an officer."

"Good question, he would've joined the academy long before now," Olivia said.

"Which it turns out he did, he joined the police academy when he was 21 but he didn't finish training. It's in his report, though no reason was listed as to why he failed to complete training. After that he took on a series of miscellaneous jobs: firearms instructor, 911 dispatcher, truck driver…"

"All of which would've helped prep him for this job in some way," Fin said.

"He got married in his late 20s, after 8 years he and his wife divorced with no children, 3 years later he joins SafeTCorp."

"And spends the next four years pretending to be one of the family," Fin added.

"Playing an uncle, but it sounds like over time he gradually stepped into the role of a father figure instead," Huang said.

"So playing family for so long he started to actually believe it?" Elliot asked.

"It's possible," Huang answered. "With no kids of his own and no siblings when he grew up, this would've been new, uncharted territory for him. SafeTCorp stresses the importance of their guards not becoming personally attached to the people they protect but," he shook his head, "you know how asinine that protocol is."

"Just like when CPS tells foster parents not to get attached to the kids they get, since they'll just be moved to another home eventually," Olivia said.

"And for four years, John Clancy ceased to exist except on paper," Huang said. "He _was_ Roger Moll. I think over time reality started to drift away from him, like that Royal Canadian Mountie who threw his wife off the balcony in the 80s. Everyone who knew him said he got so used to playing undercover roles that he lost touch with reality and believed he was his character."

"Clancy's role was a protective uncle," Olivia replied, "what would prompt him to murder the guy who's supposed to be his brother?"

"Maybe reality started to interfere," Huang suggested. "Or maybe as he took on more paternal responsibilities he felt a transference of roles, suddenly he was the dad, and Steven Moll was in the way."

"So you think he killed Moll and took David to continue playing one big happy family somewhere?" Casey asked. "I thought you said there was no sign of criminal tendencies in his MRI."

"We could be talking about an unspecified delusional disorder, they're very rare, under-studied, often misdiagnosed as schizophrenia," Huang explained, "they're not caused by any underlying physical conditions or substance abuse. Of the psychiatrists who are familiar with it, many believe that the delusion is how the patient copes with trauma or stress."

"'My own mother didn't want me, I failed the police exam, I failed my marriage, I have no children, my identity hasn't been my own for four years, I'm putting my life on the line for a guy who never has time to be with his own kid'," Olivia said, "that would give _anybody_ stress through the roof."

"If he does have this disorder, he will know that anybody else will find his behavior and belief erratic, but it makes sense to _him_ , in a fit of irony the delusion is what he believes is keeping him grounded to reality," Huang told them.

"And Skoda doesn't see it this way?" Casey asked.

Huang rolled his eyes to look towards the ceiling for a few seconds as he chose his words carefully, "He believes that that's too romanticized of a motive here, he thinks the motive for the kidnapping is something that actually _is_ grounded in reality."

"In either case, would he hurt the boy?" Casey asked him.

"I can't answer that," Huang told her, "we both know many times abusers don't believe that what they do is harmful to children."

"Pedophiles don't think they hurt their victims, they think what they're doing is love," Elliot said.

"And _that_ delusion isn't limited to just sexual abuse, how many times have we seen parents who beat their children because they honestly believed it was in their best interest?"

"So now what do we do?" Elliot asked.

"You know," Olivia mentioned, "Evan Beck was only too happy to hand over his employee's file, but not the one on Dr. Moll himself."

"I guess I'll have to pay SafeTCorp a visit," Casey said. "Maybe I want to see about hiring a bodyguard."


	5. Chapter 5

"I have to say, Mr. Beck, this is a very impressive operation you have going here," Casey told the president of the company as she finished getting the tour of SafeTCorp.

"We do our best, Miss Novak," Beck answered with a smug grin, "can I take it that you're interested in our services?"

"You might say that, the only reason I'm at my current job position is because the last ADA who had it was shot to death in a public street by an international criminal who murdered every witness who could testify against him in a murder trial, and also blew up a DEA agent in the process."

"Horrible, but unfortunately those are often the breaks in the world of law and order," Beck said, "the law gives the criminals more rights than the victims and even where it doesn't, they make the loopholes and their lawyers get the courts to okay it."

"So suppose I thought my life might be in jeopardy because some murderer I got convicted years ago suddenly gets released for good behavior and is hellbent on revenge," Casey said, "what would entail in the process?"

"Well, before we take your retainer, we'd have to conduct a thorough background check on you, your family, your associates, we'd have to request you comply with a psychological evaluation, nothing personal you understand, just checking all bases."

"Of course," Casey smiled.

"Then if we did take your case, we would figure out the best way to insert one of our men into your daily life that wouldn't draw much suspicion."

"Like a brother?" Casey asked.

"Or a cousin, a driver, say you recently had a medical incident, he may be your live-in caretaker."

"And if I didn't have a 'medical incident'?" Casey asked.

"We could always fake one," he answered.

"How reassuring," she forced a smile. "And how much would I be paying for your services?"

"The retainer's $100,000."

"Yikes," Casey said with wide eyes and an otherwise straight face. "For one bodyguard? For that price I'd expect four Commandos in a van with machine guns blazing."

"I assure you, we know how to do our job, and we're the best at what we do," Beck told her.

"I see, and all this information you'd need on my background, what would you do with it?"

"We keep files on all our clients, for our records, it's all confidential," Beck said.

"I see…and suppose after…a couple weeks I decided I didn't need a bodyguard anymore?" Casey asked, "Could I terminate services just like that?"

"Why of course, we void contracts with our clients all the time once they feel there's no longer a pertinent threat to their wellbeing," Beck explained. "You would not be charged for a single day more than our guard worked for you."

"And what's the longest I could have one assigned to me?" Casey asked.

"Most of our clients are done with our services in 1-6 months, for the long term cases we assign a bodyguard for up to five years, and if the client feels that isn't long enough, we rotate them and bring in somebody new," Beck told her.

"And say…my bodyguard and I clash, we can't get along to save our lives, could he just walk off the job at any time?" Casey asked.

"Absolutely not, our guards are like the Secret Service agents, they don't get to pick who they're assigned to, they can't play favorites, they have to give every case the same amount of dedication," Beck said, "if they don't, we terminate their employment."

"Uh huh…and are there any other circumstances that could void a guard's employment with a client?"

"If either of them suddenly die, that's about it," Beck told her.

"What if a bodyguard found out their client was breaking the law? Would that void their contract?" Casey asked.

Beck's face did a 180 and he replied defensively, "I beg your pardon?"

"Did I mention I'm with the D.A.'s office?" Casey asked. The look on Beck's face then was priceless. "I believe you spoke to some detectives from SVU earlier."

"You're here about John Clancy," Beck said.

"Actually I'm here about Steven Moll," Casey replied.

"Clancy hasn't even been found yet and already you want to try him for murder."

"I'm just as curious as everyone else to find out what's going on here, if he had reason to believe that Moll was abusing his son, the D.A.'s office might reconsider filing charges," Casey said.

"You can't be serious."

"I can get a warrant in 10 seconds, Mr. Beck, it would be a lot easier if you'd just hand over the file on your late client," she told him.

Beck grumbled something and headed over to a filing cabinet against the wall.

"To answer your question, yes, if a client's found to be breaking the law, that can impact our contract with them," he said.

"Impact, but not terminate?" Casey asked.

"Look, a couple years back our services were requested for a federal witness who was a week away from testifying, got all kinds of death threats from associates of the defendant, a big time drug cartel hitman. The feds pop for two bodyguards until the trial's over and he can be relocated. While they're in this guy's home, which by the way he shares with his wife of 13 years, not that you'd ever know it by listening to them scream at each other all the time, he starts getting into it with his wife and smacking her around, puts her in a choke hold and throws her into the indoor pool."

"Nice guy," Casey said flatly.

"Him being an abusive bastard doesn't change the fact they need his testimony to put away a guy who slaughtered a family of 12. But one of our men took matters into his own hand…broke one of the husband's."

"Seriously?" Casey asked.

"He attended the trial in a sling," Beck told her. "Jury convicts, he and his wife move on to witness protection, but not before our guy advises him if anything else happens to his wife, the cartel will be the least of his worries…then for good measure he broke the guy's other hand, figured there wouldn't be much he could do for about two months, which would give her time to figure out what she wanted to do."

"So if Clancy would've said he suspected Dr. Moll of abusing his son…" Casey started to say.

"Action would've been taken, believe me."

"But he didn't hint that anything was wrong?" Casey asked.

"No, his reports had been mediocre for the last two months," Beck said, "The Pope was seeing more action than this family was."

"I'd like to believe that, our detectives are combing through everything you have on Clancy, so far it sounds like he's a great guy…"

"He is, Miss Novak," Beck was adamant.

"But then why hasn't he called in Steven Moll's death?" Casey asked calmly. "Why did the cops have to tell _you_ he'd been shot?"

That was the question he couldn't answer and they both knew it, and Casey could tell that it was killing him.

"How did Clancy get assigned to the Moll case?" she wanted to know.

"Everybody gets the same training, they endure the same preparations, same background checks, one bodyguard isn't any better or worse prepped for any case than all the rest, all we do is narrow it down to a matching race so they can pass as family."

"Why are you prohibiting the police from going public with this story?" Casey asked. "If you really think John Clancy is innocent, you can't be worried he'll harm David, right?"

"This is a multi-billion dollar industry, if the public gets the idea unstable killers are going to be living with them, our name is mud, thousands of people will be out of work and thousands of others will be without protection," Beck pointed out.

"The BTK Killer worked for ADT Security, that pesky little fact hasn't been the company's undoing," Casey said.

"Because the public didn't find out until years after the fact when he was caught, this is current and the public _will_ be in an uproar, the rest of our clients would likely drop us like flies, we can't protect people if they don't trust us," Beck replied.

"Trust is a two-way street, Mr. Beck," Casey told him, "if I find out that you removed one Post-It note from Steven Moll's files, nothing personal," she mocked his earlier words, "but my detectives will hunt you down and haul you in for conspiracy in the doctor's murder and the disappearance of his son."

He didn't say anything in response, but the look he shot her said it all.

"One more thing, when somebody hires a bodyguard from your company, I'm assuming they show up with more than just a big smile, right?" Casey asked. "What do they bring on the job?"

"Two travel bags containing a few sets of civilian clothes, a first aid kit, an emergency cell phone that runs on batteries, an emergency food kit with 2 liters of bottled water and nonperishable food, two guns and enough ammo to reload each one three times, a ready made passport for their alias, one for the client as well, and $10,000."

* * *

"$10,000 in his suitcase, both of them could get out of the country easily on that," Munch said.

"That might be but I doubt he'd take his chance at JFK," Olivia replied, "even if it would take forever to sort through the airport security footage, he knows we'd eventually find him, what flight he got on, what the destination was, all of that."

"Truck drivers know all the back roads and shortcuts to make their time, he could drive out to a private runway and pay someone to fly him out on a charter plane, all off the books," Fin mentioned.

"Do you still think we shouldn't go public with this?" Elliot asked Cragen.

Munch decided to answer, "Sure and open the hotline to 10 million whackos who ever saw a guy with a buzz cut with a kid accompanying him. We'll be sorting false leads until Labor Day, and I'm not even sure what year."

"Well we're not giving up," Cragen said, "nobody goes home tonight, we've still got a mountain of papers to sort through on the vic _and_ the perp, there's got to be something that can explain what's going on."

"If not, it'll do wonders for everybody's speed reading skills," Munch dryly added.

Elliot murmured to Olivia, "I better call Kathy and tell her I won't be home."

"Anybody need a spare set of eyes?" Casey asked as she entered the squad room with two carriers of coffee in her hands.

"What're you doing here?" Cragen asked.

"I want to catch this son of a bitch," Casey answered, "I figured if we're going to be here all night, the coffee should be better than what you usually drink, no offense."

"Oh goodie, an ADA bearing gifts," Munch said as he took a cup, "Casey, you know me like a book. And maybe now that you're on board for a slumber party, we can find the answers to some things that aren't making any sense."

"Like what?"

"Like why Moll only felt a need to hire a bodyguard after his wife died," Olivia answered. "A terminally ill woman in the hospital would especially be a vulnerable target."

"We've been sorting through all the threats against him from the last four years, and the ones he submitted to SafeTCorp as proof he and David's lives were in danger," Elliot said, "none of them mention his wife."

"There were a few," Olivia corrected him, "but none of them made any _threats_ against her, those were more along the lines of telling the doctor his wife dying was karma for the patients he killed."

"And we're sure that his wife's death _wasn't_ foul play?" Casey asked.

"Doesn't seem that way, when his wife got sick, Dr. Moll sprang for a second, third and fourth opinion and they all came back as Huntington's disease," Olivia answered.

"I thought that usually took 10 or 20 years to kill someone," Casey said.

Elliot replied "Normally yeah, but her physical and mental deterioration was sped along by a stroke she suffered, left her half paralyzed, she never left the hospital after that and while she was there…"

"Another stroke occurred," Casey realized.

"Bigger one, pushed her over the edge into total brain death, the doctor couldn't accept it."

"His son couldn't accept it," Olivia added.

"They held off pulling the plug incase the doctors were wrong but finally there wasn't anything left to do," Elliot said.

"So whoever these people were who wanted the doctor dead, didn't mind threatening his son but they didn't see any point in dragging his wife into it too?" Casey asked.

"Now do you see why it doesn't make any sense?" Munch asked.

"And there's been no update on their whereabouts?"

"Every police district in the tri-state area has been alerted to what's going on, we got a BOLO out on the plates for his car," Cragen said.

"As smart as this guy is, he either changed the plate or switched cars," Munch said, "any idiot working for the government would know that."

" _Did_ you check out his ex-wife?" Casey asked.

"Yeah, she says she hasn't seen Clancy since they got divorced, we got an unmarked car watching her house just incase he shows up anyway," Cragen said.

"What about _his_ home?"

"Doesn't have one."

"What?" Casey asked.

"He sold his place when he found out he was going to be undercover for five years," Elliot said. "We've checked, he has no other properties in his name."

"And his parents?"

"They had two properties, both of which have been checked out and turned up empty," Cragen explained.

"And we don't know anybody else he's likely to go to?"

"After four years with no contact you're not going to have many friends left," Elliot said, "these guys lose everything about their own identity, the only cell phones they're allowed to carry are for their cover, they're not allowed to send emails to family or friends, they can't make phone calls to anybody they know, they can't post on social media, it's like they've dropped off the face of the earth. To work at this company takes a dedication you only find in cults."

"Like those damn Moonie people," Munch chimed in.

"Thank you, John," Cragen dryly responded.

Casey managed a small smile and said, "Looks like it's going to be a long night."

* * *

"Liv…Liv…Liv!"

Olivia half snorted, half choked, let out a started yelp and reached for her gun as she sprang up on the bed.

"Chill," Fin said as he held his hands up, "it's just me."

Olivia brushed the hair back from her eyes and realized as she rolled over on her back that they were in the crib.

"What time is it?" she asked, slowly remembering the events of last night, reading reports and praying for a lead every time the phone rang, then finally calling it a night around 4 A.M.

"Five to eight," Fin answered. "Casey finally went home a couple hours ago."

Olivia rubbed her eyes groggily, then jumped up as a thought occurred to her. "They find anything?"

"Not yet, we just brought back some coffee and doughnuts."

"We?" Olivia asked.

"Munch ain't been to bed yet, said the bunks up here 're too uncomfortable for his bony ass."

"That his direct quote or yours?" Olivia asked as she smoothed her hair back.

"What the hell's going on down there?" Elliot tiredly asked as his head came into view, upside-down, from his spot on the bunk above Olivia's.

"Time to get up, altar boy," Fin said.

Elliot's head disappeared from Olivia's point of view, then his whole body swung down from the top bunk and asked, "They find the kid yet?"

"We ain't that lucky," Fin shook his head, "let's just hope the boy's still alive."

Olivia checked he watch and said, "Well we're still less than 24 hours into it, that has to count for something."

"What time is it?" Elliot asked.

"8 o' clock."

"Goodnight," Elliot said as he moved to climb back on the top bunk.

Munch came running up the stairs to the crib and called to the other detectives, "We might have something."

"What?" Fin asked.

"Looks like Clancy's burning his tracks," Munch said, "fire department in Queens responded to a fire last night, they found something in the ashes."

* * *

The four SVU detectives pulled up beside a vacant lot that was next to a condemned motel that had gone up in flames and was now just a smoldering shell. The dried grass that ran from the motel property to the lot next door was all charred to a crisp that was now drowned in water.

"What happened here?" Elliot asked.

The fire chief met with them and explained, "Some night owl was looking out their window and spotted the flames about midnight and called it in. As far as we can tell, somebody lit a garbage fire in a plastic dumpster next to the motel here and took off, the dumpster melted, as dry as the weather's been it didn't take ten minutes for the whole lawn to go up in flames and then it spread to the building, as bad a shape as it was in the whole thing should've gone up instantly but for some reason it took its time to really start burning. Would've saved a lot of trouble to just let it all burn to the ground, but again, dry as things have been, we had to contain it."

"We were told you found something," Olivia said.

"In what was left of the dumpster…somehow not all of the contents inside had gone up in flames, enough of it was salvageable to get a good idea what happened. The local cops told us about this guy you're looking for. As soon as we saw what it was, we figured we'd better call you."

The detectives walked over to the other side of the lot where the fire hadn't reached, and saw the remnants of several items laid out on the lawn. Most of it was burnt beyond recognition but they were able to make out part of a boy's blazer, part of a black tie, a white shirt, tan pants, part of a backpack and blackened parts of about four school text books.

"Oh my God," Olivia exhaled.

"Find anything else?" Elliot asked.

The fire chief shook his head, "Everything else that was in that dumpster is long gone."


	6. Chapter 6

"What're we thinking now?" Cragen asked when the detectives returned to the squad room.

"I don't know," Olivia shook her head.

"Obviously Clancy didn't put David in that dumpster or they would've definitely been able to identify that," Munch said.

"He picked David up at school, he would've still been wearing his uniform, he would've had his schoolbooks with him," Elliot said.

"But the only things missing from the house were Clancy's things," Olivia replied.

"Maybe that's it," Fin thought, and explained, "Mrs. Gonzalez knows that house like the back of her hand, she said _none_ of David's stuff was missing, none of his clothes, but he wore his uniform to school that day."

"So Clancy kills Moll then goes shopping?" Elliot asked.

"It would explain part of time gap," Cragen said. "He knows what David wears so he'd know what to get so the kid couldn't be identified by his clothes. Warner figures Clancy killed Moll around 9 A.M., Clancy doesn't pick David up until 3, so he's got 6 hours to kill, and what does he do?"

"Kills the dad, packs a lunch, packs up all his crap, wipes as many of his fingerprints off everything he can remember to, tosses his cell phone, disables the tracking device on the car, goes out, gets a change of clothes for David, then goes to the school to pick him up," Elliot counted it off on his fingers and concluded, "that's still a wide window of opportunity."

"Why did he wait so long?" Cragen asked.

"Why take David to school, then come back and kill Moll?" Olivia asked.

"Well Skoda and Huang couldn't agree on much about this guy but they both agree he doesn't show any warning signs of being a child abuser," Elliot said, "George thinks it's a parental fantasy Clancy took to the next level, Skoda thinks it's one of the time honored kidnapping plots instead, in either case, the immediate plan doesn't seem to involve harming David…if you were going to kill a kid's dad, would you do it with him in the house?"

"So for the kid's sake he pretends it's just another day, drops him off, comes back, shoots the dad, then starts packing to get the hell out of Dodge," Cragen said, "but then why wait until school lets out to get the kid? Everybody there already thought Clancy was David's dad, he could've come back early and said there was a family emergency. He could've gotten a 4-5 hour head start instead of just beating us out of there by 10 minutes."

"Maybe he just wanted David to have one more normal day with his friends," Elliot said.

"But he had to know Mrs. Gonzalez would come to clean that day," Cragen replied. "He'd been there for 4 years, she'd been there for 3, he had to know her schedule, it's only a natural assumption once a murder's reported that the police will scramble to find his son."

"And yet there was still an estimated 45 minutes from the time she found the body to when Elliot and Liv went to the school," Munch said.

Something just occurred to Olivia. "You don't think he was watching us, do you?"

"No way," Cragen shook his head, "nobody has balls with that much brass."

"The real question is where the hell they been since yesterday afternoon?" Fin wanted to know. "It takes less than an hour to drive from here to Queens, so why'd he burn David's stuff this morning?"

"And where the hell were they all night?" Munch asked. "Just laying low somewhere? Hiding in plain sight?"

"Still leaves the question where are they going?" Olivia asked.

"He removed all his stuff from the house to make it look like he was never there, now he's torched everything David had once he left the house, like both of them just disappeared into thin air," Elliot said.

"At least we know it's not up in smoke," Munch added.

"Not yet anyway," Cragen replied.

The phone at Elliot's desk rang and he answered it while the other detectives talked amongst themselves. When he hung up he announced for the whole squad to hear, "We got something!"

"What is it?" Cragen asked.

"Somebody got security cam footage of a man matching Clancy's description at a motel checking out this morning in Albany, unis are rushing it over now for us to check."

"This SOB's making good time now," Fin said.

* * *

The uniform cop explained to the SVU detectives while they waited for TARU to get the image up on the monitor, "We've been checking every security cam between here and the county line, turns out this old biddy across from the motel had a camera installed because she wanted to keep an eye on all the unsavory characters checking in at the no-tell motel here, calls it her duty as a good citizen."

"This time she may be right," Elliot said.

"Couldn't get the plate number off the car but it's the same make and model on the BOLO, it's got to be them."

"We'll be the judge of that," Olivia said.

"Okay, it's ready," Morales told them.

The detectives swarmed in around him and watched as the night vision footage played on the screen. The time stamp was 6:30 A.M, one of the doors to the downstairs rooms opened and a man walked out carrying something in his arms, he walked over to the black car on the screen, put whatever he was holding in the backseat, then got in the driver's seat and pulled out.

"Can you enhance that image and replay it?" Olivia asked.

"Sure," Morales answered.

When he played the video again, the picture was much clearer. The door to room 3 opened and John Clancy walked out dressed in a T-shirt, camouflage pants, white sneakers, and was carrying a 12 year old boy in his arms. David was dressed in jeans, a T-shirt and jacket, and dark sneakers.

"That kid doesn't look like 100 pounds soaking wet," Fin realized.

"And he's completely out cold," Olivia said, "look at that, he never moves."

"Our friend John must've drugged him," Munch said.

" _Why_ is the question," Elliot commented, starting to feel sick.

They watched as the rest of the footage played, Clancy opened the door behind the driver's seat, laid David across the backseat, closed the door, then got in the front seat and drove off.

"He didn't take anything else out to the car," Olivia realized.

Elliot turned to the uniform and asked, "Get CSU tossing the room?"

The young officer looked embarrassed as he answered, "We had to be sure it was the right guy first."

"Well now you know, get CSU on it," Fin said.

"Let's go check that room ourselves and see if maybe Clancy left anything behind," Elliot said.

* * *

CSU was already on the scene by the time the SVU detectives arrived, the first thing Elliot noticed that made his stomach turn was that there was only one bed in the room.

"Find anything?" he swallowed the acid in the back of his throat.

One of the CSU women told him, "No fluids on the bed, no bloodstains anywhere, though there's a trace of water around the drain of the bathtub, two damp towels, and a new bar of soap freshly used probably last night."

"So somebody took a bath," Olivia said, "anything in the trash?"

The woman scoffed and picked up the wastebasket to show blackened debris inside that had been doused with water before the basket could melt.

"He's still not taking any chances," Elliot said.

"What do you think he burnt?" Olivia asked.

"Some of it looks like it was plastic," Fin said, "he couldn't have been burning that in here."

"Probably set it outside while it burnt, then brought it in after he doused it," the CSU woman said.

"Okay," Munch said as he entered the room with the front desk register, "Clancy signed in last night under the name of Nathan Ellis, and get this, the night clerk said he gave him this room because he was not aware that Mr. Clancy was traveling with any children."

The night clerk of which Munch spoke appeared in the doorway behind him, a scruffy looking man in his 50s who looked like it had been a week since he bathed and a decade since he was without a cigarette.

"You're serious?" Elliot asked.

"Hey, a guy says he's traveling alone, why shouldn't I take him at his word?" the man asked as he tossed his cigarette on the pavement outside.

"You didn't see a 12 year old boy with him?" Olivia asked.

"What he does once I give him the key ain't none of my concern," he said.

"Did you even watch him go in?" Olivia asked accusingly.

"Oh that'd be _real_ good for business if I start spying on the customers," he replied.

"Did he leave his room at any time last night?" Elliot asked.

"A couple times, he paid for the whole night in advance, so what did I care?" the clerk asked.

"Yeah, why would you?" Munch replied sarcastically. "You can go now, you've been useless enough."

"Well, now what?" Elliot asked. "There's nothing here to go on."

"Except that we know David's still alive," Olivia replied.

"How many sandwiches does a loaf of bread make?" Munch asked.

"Nine," Elliot answered automatically, many years of helping Kathy pack their kids' lunches coming back to him. "Ten if you use the heels."

"Meaning between yesterday afternoon and this morning, they probably went through most or all of them," Munch said.

"So maybe they finally stop off somewhere to eat along the way," Fin realized what his partner was getting at.

"Let's start canvassing all the places in this vicinity that serve breakfast and start showing pictures," Elliot said.

* * *

After checking 10 diners that served breakfast, they struck gold.

"Yes, they were here," the middle aged waitress told the detectives as she looked at the pictures of Clancy and David.

"You're sure?" Olivia asked.

"Oh yes," she answered. "We open at 5, breakfast crowd doesn't really get going until 6:30, they came in around 6."

"You're positive it was them," Olivia asked.

"Definitely, the dad had eggs, bacon, toast, and sausages, and the boy had chocolate chip pancakes and strawberry milk."

"Strawberry milk?" Munch asked in a somewhat disgusted tone.

"It's not a big seller but we do offer it," she told him. "That poor boy, looked like he just woke up…looked like he'd been crying too. His dad said they'd had to have his dog put down yesterday, and his son was still torn up about it."

"You have no idea," Munch murmured.

"Did the dad seem anxious about anything or mention where they were going?" Olivia asked.

"No…they didn't stay long, the kind of customers we like, come in, eat, pay, and get out, not like a bunch of inconsiderate people who take up the table for an hour to chat."

Elliot spotted a payphone towards the back and he asked, "He make any calls?"

"No," she shook her head. "Seemed like a nice man, he gave me a big tip. The whole meal was $40, he gave me a $100 bill and told me to keep the change."

"What time did they leave?" Fin asked.

"About 6:30."

"Did you happen to see which way they were heading?" Elliot asked.

"Yes actually, that time of day the headlights shine right through the windows, damn near blind you, they were heading east when they left."

* * *

"So we know David's still alive," Olivia said.

"And as far as we can tell, not harmed yet," Munch added. "CSU didn't find any semen in the motel room, a _very_ rare occurrence under the best circumstances, they must've just changed the sheets for the first time in a year."

"The longer this search goes on, the harder it's going to be to keep the press from getting wind of it," Cragen said, "every cop east of that diner has been put on alert about our situation."

"Well he's already starting to slip," Elliot said, "he got caught on video, he went to a public place where 20 people could've seen him."

"So if we're lucky he'll just keep making mistakes until we catch him," Cragen replied, "but I just hope it doesn't come at the expense of that boy's life. Run that alias he used at the motel and see if anything pops up with it."

* * *

Skoda sat down at Olivia's desk as she brought him up to speed on the investigation.

"We pulled Moll's files from the company and pored over them, there are no red flags anywhere in his record, we are still trying to figure out what the motive could be here, I know you and Huang didn't agree on Clancy's mindset in this crime the other day, but I was hoping you could take another look and see if anything else sticks out."

"Olivia," Skoda told her, "George is a brilliant doctor, and I'm not questioning his integrity, I just don't happen to agree with his theory on why Clancy took the boy."

"Why not?" Olivia asked.

"Because I don't believe Clancy is suffering from any kind of delusions or hallucinations."

"But I don't understand why."

"Because you don't have to be delusional to commit murder and abduction," Skoda explained.

"I know, Huang said you think it's a motive more 'reality based', like what?"

"Well ransom's out, and based on his MRIs and everything else in his file, it doesn't seem likely he took the kid for sexual purposes, most abductions are custodial based…are we sure there's no other family that could be petitioning to get David?"

Olivia shook her head. "The housekeeper was adamant that Mrs. Moll told her they had _no_ other family."

"Then the next theory is with so many threats against the family, that John went over to the dark side, it's possible in theory but I don't think it holds much merit."

"Any particular reason?"

"It's more cold hard facts than actual psychiatry, as smart as he is, he's not smarter than the people that trained him, and since he shows no signs of being a sociopath he's probably aware of that, wherever he's going, he's trying to get it done before his time runs out," Skoda said, "the ball's in his court now but with the company's resources they will eventually find him, and he has to know that."

" _Does_ that threaten David's life?" Olivia asked.

"I can't say with certainty but I don't think killing the boy has even occurred to him," Skoda answered.

"So if he didn't turn the boy over to one of the people threatening the doctor, what's left?" Olivia asked.

Skoda shrugged and answered, "I don't think he has any delusional disorder that tells him that David's really his son. I think he's very aware of what the facts are, but he's probably looking at them in a different yet still very rational way."

"Like what?" Olivia asked.

"The general impression everybody's given is that John was placed in a surrogate father role…what's the extent of the responsibilities he had involving David? We know he was the one taking him to school and getting him every day, what else? Prior to this year, David stayed home because he didn't go to school, and Clancy stayed at home too because his priority was keeping David safe while Dr. Moll was at work. He had private tutors, Clancy and the housekeeper made sure all the tutoring sessions were conducted in their sight so they could keep an eye on things. When David _did_ attend school, Clancy was the one there if he brought friends home, he would've been the one doing things with the boys. The housekeeper also said that Dr. Moll would be out of town frequently, again, Clancy would've been the one at home with David. This went on continuously for 4 long years, consider what all entails from that."

Olivia tried, and she thought she was starting to see the big picture.

"If David has a problem, who does he go to?" Skoda asked. "John Clancy. If he has a question, who does he ask? Clancy. If he wants to go anywhere, he goes with Clancy. Reality still holds, Clancy knows that he's not David's father, but it starts to appear to him that the doctor is neglecting his son. It's not unreasonable in that psyche that he would start to think he could give David a better life than he currently has, he's got the money and the means to go anywhere and take the boy with him. It wouldn't necessarily be living like a father and son, but just continuing their relationship as it already exists."

"But why kill the doctor?" Olivia asked.

"It's possible Steven Moll found out about Clancy's plans, they get into an argument, Moll threatens to expose Clancy to the company, he wouldn't be arrested but his career would definitely be ruined and he would lose all access to David. Possibly Clancy just loses it and in a fit of rage, he shoots Moll."

"But he had to know the body would be discovered, he had to know that somebody would put it together," Olivia said.

"Trying to dispose of the body would be timely, messy, and interfere with his plans," Skoda said. "He figured he could get David and get to wherever he was going before anybody could catch him."

"But he still waited six hours before getting David at school, what sense does that make?" Olivia asked.

"Playing it cool, he acts like nothing's wrong, school doesn't suspect a thing, they'd be among the first people to talk to police if they thought something was up. Probably after picking him up, he says Moll's had to go out of town on business, they're going on a trip, buys him a few hours of not having to explain anything."

"And after that?" Olivia asked.

Skoda shrugged. "Your guess is as good as mine."

Olivia thought about that for a minute and told him, "They were spotted on a security camera outside a motel, we think he drugged David."

"Were any of the doctor's meds missing?"

"We had to wait for Warner to tell us he was taking anything," Olivia said, "there weren't any pills in the house."

"Well _that's_ very unusual for a doctor," Skoda replied. "Still, I've seen the photos of the house, aside from David's room the whole place was meticulous, nothing was out of place, it's possible he didn't bring them home. It definitely would've been a responsible move when David was younger, no matter what you tell some kids, they are still going to swallow pills if they get a chance."

"Painkillers and sleeping pills," Olivia said, "either one of which could've been used to knock David out."

"Prescription strength?"

"Some, there were others Warner said were probably something over the counter."

"It's unlikely Clancy would be taking any sleeping pills but not impossible, but he could've been taking something himself and given it to David," Skoda said.

"Emil, do you think he would hurt David?" Olivia wanted to know.

Skoda sighed and answered, "I can't guarantee anything, but I don't think so, not on any conscious level anyway."

Olivia paused for a moment before saying, "There's another possibility I wanted to get your professional opinion on. Do you think it's possible he kidnapped David to…do you have any idea how many men first meet their wives when they're barely teenagers?"

"You're asking if Clancy could be grooming David for a lover when he's older…that's a different mindset than a pedophile, and a harder question to answer," Skoda told her. "As you said, it's not uncommon, it's a known fact most men fall in lust with women when they're in high school, some fall in love with them at that same age, some younger than that, most don't wait for it to become legal but some do, and we don't demonize the ones that do."

"It's still disgusting," Olivia said.

"Love is very complex, sometimes you just know and it doesn't matter how old two people are…and I'm well aware that that has been twisted, distorted and exploited to death by child molesters who justify their actions, but it doesn't stop it from being true for other people. It's possible, but without further information on both of them, I can't assert any opinion on that."

Cragen entered the squad room. "Olivia, everybody's moving out. Clancy's car was just spotted coming off I-678. State troopers are going to try moving in and forcing him into a pocket, everybody who's not out on call is being brought in to assist."

Olivia looked at Skoda, who merely told her, "Good luck."

* * *

The four SVU detectives moved fast in a convoy of both marked and unmarked police cars that raced along with only lights but no sirens. In all Elliot had counted about 20 cop cars all heading in the same direction, everybody keeping in touch with one another through the radios about where they were going and what the plan was. In the time it took for them to catch up with the rest of the police vehicles, Clancy's car had been reported as getting out of the Bronx entirely, had cut across two neighboring districts, taken a shortcut twisting and turning through a series of forgotten back roads, and was tearing through a heavily wooded area. A police chopper was keeping the black car in sight and reporting Clancy's location and movements and pieced together where the police cars were to turn to build up a barricade they could corner Clancy in. An order came over the radio for everybody to kill their lights, as of yet, there was no indication he had any idea the police were following him.

"Where do you think he's going?" Olivia asked.

"Maybe he's got a cabin stashed out in the woods," Elliot said. "Maybe Nathan Ellis wasn't the only alias he has."

Cragen's voice came over the radio, "Everybody else is in place ready to block him and ready to close in. He's a mile ahead, bury the accelerator and hit the lights and sirens, it's time he knew we're coming."

"Got it," Elliot replied as he sped up.

Olivia barely saw the needle on the speedometer climb to 70, the other cars were right alongside and behind them, and after what seemed like only a few seconds, the black car ahead came into view. In response to the lights and sirens, the black car only sped up.

"He can't seriously think he's going to outrun us," Olivia said.

"He's sure as hell going to try," Elliot replied.

"I just hope we're not too late," she said.

They sped up to catch up to Clancy, who was bobbing and weaving all over the place, causing a few patrol cars to knock into each other, Elliot swerved to avoid joining the pileup.

Up ahead they were able to see the black car make a turn and hit the brakes, and it was obvious why, 20 more police cars were coming at it from the other side.

"We got him!" Elliot announced as he stopped the car.

"Let's go!" Olivia threw her door open and hopped out.

Everybody piled out of their cars and approached the black car with guns drawn. One of the officers ordered Clancy to turn off his engine, drop his weapon, and get out of the car nice and slow with his hands up. The lights went off, the driver stuck his hands out the window, then opened the door and slowly got out, and the detectives saw John Clancy face to face for the first time. He was tall, muscular, and dressed in a black T-shirt, blue jeans and boots. The cops nearest him rushed him, tackled him and forced him to the ground. Olivia ran over to the car and called out as she pulled the door fully open, "David?" Nothing. She pulled the door open to the backseat and looked in. "David?" The backseat and the floor were both empty. She called to one of the unis, "Pop the trunk!"

Somebody did, Olivia threw it open and looked in. All the trunk contained was a spare tire, a jack, a tire iron, a toolkit, a spare gas can, an ice scraper, a set of road flares, a fire extinguisher, and a first aid kit. She took everything out just to make sure. Nothing. She slammed the lid shut and told the others, "He's not here!"

"Is there a problem, officers?" John Clancy asked very nonchalantly from his position on the ground.

"Where's David?" Olivia demanded as she stormed over to him.

"Who?" Clancy feigned innocence as he stood up.

"WHERE'S THE KID?" Elliot screamed in his ear.

"I don't have any idea what you're talking about," Clancy answered.

Elliot simultaneously kneed Clancy in the groin and hit him in the head, causing him to collapse on his knees with a pained groan.

"That's enough, Elliot," Cragen told him as he came up to them. He personally took out the handcuffs and advised the man on the ground, "John Clancy, my name is Captain Donald Cragen, and it is my extreme pleasure to place you under arrest for the murder of Steven Moll and the kidnapping of David Moll. You have the right to remain silent, anything you do say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney…"


	7. Chapter 7

Olivia and Elliot sat in the interrogation room with Clancy, who thus far had refused to say a single word, and merely sat at the other side of the table, looking at them from time to time but mostly just looking towards the wall.

"We know you're a smart man, John," Olivia said, "you're no fool. See we know that you know how all of this works, your mother was a cop, she probably taught you all about interrogation procedures. But you also have to know that we know what happened. The gunshot residue test we ran is going to come up positive, it's going to tell us that you fired a gun recently, and ballistics is going to match one of the two guns we confiscated from your car as being the one that shot Dr. Moll in the back of the head. We also know that you went to Spencer Academy, you picked up David, and you didn't take him home, you went on the run. All of this is going to stack up nicely for a jury to get the big picture. And you know that D.A.s are always willing to cut a deal, all you'd have to do is tell us everything that happened. Maybe it's not as bad as it looks. Maybe it was an accident, things just got out of hand, you panicked, it happens all the time."

"Obviously you and Steven Moll had an argument about something," Elliot said, "about David? About how he was never there and you were the one playing daddy for four long years."

"Or maybe it was something else," Olivia said, "something more personal."

Clancy folded his arms and made a less than amused sound and told them, "You two really are stupid."

Olivia slammed on the table the photo of Clancy, Moll and David at the safari park.

"Looks like one big happy family," she said, watching Clancy look away from the picture and leer at the wall again, "except it wasn't, was it? And we know it wasn't."

"The company you work for, they train you for everything, how to handle every possible scenario," Elliot said, "except how to handle kids…nobody and nothing prepares you for that, it's all hands on experience with no guidelines. I know, I have 4 of them myself. I look back at all the stuff I did wrong, it's like 'Why didn't somebody warn me about this?' You know, annoying little kid screaming, whining, crying all day, 'I want daddy, I want daddy'. And I know my wife thought plenty of times 'where the hell is that bastard?', you probably said the same thing a hundred times."

"You know what, I think this picture would look a lot better," Olivia pressed the heel of her hand against the photograph, blocking Moll's image from it, "like this. Just the two of you with nobody to interfere. We have some other pictures." From her lap, Olivia produced one photo after another of David from one year to the next. "You watched him grow up from a little boy into a handsome young man, and who knows what the future could hold? But that couldn't happen with Steven Moll in the way, could it?"

"Wow, you are one dumb bitch, you know that?" Clancy asked her.

"See, that's what I said," Elliot replied, "I told her she's way off base, it's very obvious what happened. You saw this rich bastard who had a son he didn't even appreciate, while you and your wife spent 8 years together and couldn't even have a child, then she leaves you, and you've got to be kicking yourself, if you'd had a kid she would've stayed and you'd still be together and your life would be perfect. Why _was_ that anyway, your sperm count too low or what?"

Clancy managed a small, unamused smile, and responded, "This is seriously what you people do all day? I want my taxes back."

"Well I wouldn't worry about that, you've just forfeited paying them for the next 25 years to life," Elliot told him. "Of course the D.A. would probably be willing to knock down the charges if you'd just tell us where David is."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Clancy replied.

Elliot slammed another photograph on the table, a still taken from the security footage at the motel.

"That's you carrying David out to the car, he's unconscious, what did you do to him, Clancy?"

"CSU is tossing your car, they find so much as one drop of blood, you're history," Olivia told him. "You murdered Steven Moll in the process of kidnapping his son, that's murder 1, that's the death penalty, John, you're too good for that."

The door to the interrogation room flew open, and Clancy jumped back in his chair. Elliot and Olivia turned and saw a middle aged man in a dark suit with a briefcase enter the room.

"This interview is over," he said.

"Who the hell are you?" Elliot asked.

"Richard Palmquist, I represent Mr. Clancy."

"I didn't ask for a lawyer," Clancy spoke up.

"You didn't have to," the attorney replied, and explained to the detectives, "I'm representing him on behalf of his employer, Evan Beck at SafeTCorp."

"Get him out of here," Clancy said as he stood up, "I ain't talking to you cops but I sure as hell ain't talking to him."

An incomprehensible squabble ensued over the next few minutes between the two detectives, the lawyer, and the perp. It finally ended with Clancy telling the detectives, "Get this guy out of here, I've got nothing to say to him."

The attorney was starting to lose his cool and it showed, "Don't be stupid, John."

"Mr. Palmquist," Cragen said as he stepped into the room, "As amusing as this all has been I believe you need to come with me."

* * *

"This is an outrage," Richard Palmquist told Cragen as he paced outside the interrogation room, "it's unconstitutional."

"Mr. Palmquist, as I recall, a defendant does have the right to _waive_ their right to counsel," Cragen pointed out. "John Clancy had made it clear he doesn't wish you to represent him, and you can go back and tell Mr. Beck the same thing."

"This isn't the end, Cragen," Palmquist threatened him, "I'll be back with a lawsuit for wrongful arrest."

"I'm sure the D.A. looks forward to sparring with you," Cragen replied.

Once the defense attorney left, Cragen tapped on the 1-way glass and watched as Olivia and Elliot came out to speak with him.

"What the hell was that about?" Munch wanted to know.

"Beck has to know his guy is guilty, why's he falling over himself to get him a lawyer?" Fin asked.

"Did _anybody_ else see what I saw in there?" Olivia asked the men around her. When nobody answered she explained, "Clancy nearly fell out of his chair when Palmquist walked in…Clancy doesn't care about being charged with murder and facing the death penalty, but he was _scared_ of that man."

"Meaning he must know Palmquist works for SafeTCorp," Cragen said, "but what's so scary about a lawyer?"

"Maybe it's not the lawyer as much as what he'll relay back to Beck," Munch thought, "he works first and foremost for the company president, who can pay handsomely, for anything, he probably wouldn't see it as a conflict of interest to tell the right hand what the left client is doing."

"Why would that be a problem?" Olivia asked.

"Maybe something he'd divulge to an attorney would be enough for his own employers to have him killed," Munch said.

"Here we go again with the crazy ass conspiracy theories," Fin said, "we've heard them all already, Kennedy, Oswald, Ruby, Sirhan, Ray…"

"I'm not talking about that," Munch replied, "I'm talking about the Invisible Empire."

"The what?" Elliot asked.

"The Klan," Fin answered. Then he turned to Munch and asked, "What they got to do with this?"

"Beck said they've lost several men to this job, is there any way we can corroborate they just happened to be on the receiving end of the wrong crazed stalker, and _not_ that they were fragged by their own company?" Munch asked.

Even Cragen was lost. "You think he's having his own men killed? For what reason?"

"There're a lot of secrets in this business, maybe some of the guards leaked them to the wrong people," Munch said. "Back when Stetson Kennedy was infiltrating the bed sheet brotherhood in the 40s, at the meetings all Klansmen were ordered to lay down their guns, they were collected into a pile that the only person who could access them was the Grand Dragon or Imperial Wizard. And if it was found out that any of the lower ranking sheets had committed any acts of treason against the Empire, they were executed by the organization they vowed to honor. Kennedy himself had several narrow escapes, as did his wife, whose only crime was being married to the man leaking their secrets to the writers of Superman's radio program."

"And your point?" Elliot asked.

"Kennedy reported his discoveries about the Klan all the way to the FBI and CIA, notice how even that didn't get their group shut down, any takers on why that is?" Munch asked. "And everything I've seen of this company tells me they think of themselves as a new CIA, they know everything about everybody and they expect us to believe that they don't use that information for any ulterior purposes."

"Munch, you gotta stop pulling all nighters, you finally fried your brain," Fin said.

"Maybe so, but maybe we should look into it," Cragen said. He turned to Elliot and Olivia and told them, "Get Warner on speed dial, tell Casey to wake up a judge, we're going grave robbing. In the meantime, keep working Clancy, maybe something will accidentally shake loose."

"Fin and I are up next," Munch said, "I've got everything prepared I'm going to say to him."

"This is not going to end well," Fin groaned.

* * *

"So do you think I'd have what it takes to join SafeTCorp?" Munch asked Clancy, who sat sandwiched at the table between he and Fin. Munch looked over some paperwork and continued, "Gotta be single to qualify, right? That's me. The eternal bachelor. Can you actually reclaim your bachelorhood after divorce, like women reclaim their virginity if they say a guy doesn't count? This job's got me written all over it, divorced 4 times, no kids in any of them, though I understand that's something we have in common. Probably just as well, I never wanted to stick a child with the responsibility of raising me."

"Shut up, Munch, you're acting weirder than usual," Fin said.

"Well the job pays better than being a cop, I could finally pay off the rest of my alimony," Munch replied. "You know, Mr. Clancy, I have my own take on this company, Spooks Lite. They think they're the new CIA or something, they know everything about everybody, they know stuff about people that nobody else knows, and what do they do with all that information? Gotta be selling it all to somebody, that's all every corporation does that gets your private information."

"Munch, go get us some more coffee," Fin told him.

"I'm good," he replied.

Fin picked up Munch's coffee cup and poured it into the wastebasket. "There, you're out, go get some more. You want something, Mr. Clancy?"

The suspect didn't answer.

"He is so easy to please, isn't he?" Munch asked as he got up, "Been here six hours now, doesn't need a glass of water, something to eat, use the facilities, why can't they all be like this?"

Fin waited until the door closed and said to the suspect, "Tell you the truth, Mr. Clancy, I don't even get what any of us are doing here. This is a bogus arrest if ever I saw one. Nobody saw who shot Steven Moll, the gun wasn't found, nothing was missing from the house," he looked at John through the corner of his eye and added, "And let's be real, we both know you didn't kidnap that boy. You couldn't do something like that, hell, you were probably the only one who ever gave a damn about him. Three months he attended that school, and his own dad couldn't bother to pick him up one time, you did that, you made sure he got there and home again safe. You were the one there making sure his tutors didn't try anything funny. You were the one watching him every time his dad was out of town. You caught _nine_ people who threatened his life, sent them all to prison where they belong, to rot, that's dedication. Anybody willing to put his life on the line that much couldn't possibly harm a kid." He pointed at Clancy and added, "you just wanted to make sure he was safe, that he didn't see what that bastard that got away did to his father, you made sure that nobody could possibly find him to make him the next target."

John Clancy turned towards Fin and said point blank, "You are as transparent as those other cops, bring them back in here, at least they have the balls to tell me to my face what they think I did."

* * *

"It's not looking good, John," Olivia said as she and Elliot returned to the interrogation room, both of them carrying several sheets of paper. "The GSR test came back positive, you _did_ fire a gun recently. Now, you were smart enough not to use your issued gun, but that doesn't matter. We have a man with the back of his head blown off, we have nitrate on your hands…and CSU found blood in the back and front passenger seats of your car, and they matched it to David."

"What happened?" Elliot asked as he straddled his chair backwards and faced the man. "David said he wanted to go home and he wouldn't be quiet so you smacked him to make him shut up? Is that it?"

"Only maybe he didn't listen," Olivia added, "and he kept screaming."

"So you hit him again."

"And maybe then he just quit making noise altogether," Olivia said.

"If that's true the only way you can save yourself is to tell us where he is," Elliot told him.

"Do you know what happens to child abusers in prison, John?" Olivia asked, "they are the absolute bottom of the food chain. Everybody in Rikers is going to be gunning for you."

"Well he's not worried, he was trained to handle anything and everything, right?" Elliot asked. "Maybe even how to survive being locked up…but that wouldn't have taken kidnapping or child abuse into question, there's no training for that. You're going to walk into gen pop with a big target on your back, my friend. You know how many guys get shanked when the guards aren't looking?"

"And the group beatings in the shower," Olivia added.

"And if one of the guards there would happen to be a parent," Elliot added, "they'll drag you off to a backroom somewhere and beat the piss out of you."

"Time's running out, John," Olivia said, "once you're arraigned, we can't help you. You have to help yourself."

The door opened and Casey Novak stepped in.

"Who's this?" Clancy asked, "another defense attorney?"

"No, I'm the ADA who's going to prosecute you for Steven Moll's murder, and his son's kidnapping," she answered, "And I assure you if this goes to a jury, you _will_ get the death penalty, and if possible I would be only too happy to give you the needle myself."

Clancy looked at them and finally said, "You've had me here for 24 hours, book me, take me to arraignment, get on with it."

"Where's David?" Casey demanded to know.

Clancy got a different look in his eyes and he all but lunged at her, Elliot and Olivia jumped in to restrain him. Clancy let out a demented laugh and yelled at them, "David's _gone_ and you're _never_ gonna find him!"

* * *

The next morning Clancy appeared in court, in a dark suit and tie, with a woman from the public defender's office at his side. Casey stood at the opposing desk, and Elliot and Olivia sat behind her in the gallery.

"State vs. John Clancy, 1 count murder in the 1st degree, 1 count kidnapping in the first degree," the bailiff read.

"How does the defendant plead?" the judge asked.

"Not guilty," the public defender said.

"People on bail, Miss Novak?"

"The People ask that the defendant be remanded," Casey said.

"That's absurd, Your Honor," the public defender said, "my client has no criminal record. We request ROR."

Clancy turned to his lawyer and told her, "That's not what I said."

The judge banged her gavel for order.

"Your Honor," Casey said, "the defendant murdered his employer in cold blood and then kidnapped his 12 year old son, who still hasn't been found."

"Your Honor," the public defender tried to speak.

"No, she's wrong," Clancy told the judge, "I'm pleading not guilty but I want remand."

"Your Honor!" the public defender said.

"Your client seems to have made up his own mind," the judge said, "defendant is held without bail."

Casey headed over to the detectives and asked them, "What the hell was that about?"

"Nothing about this makes any sense," Olivia said, "he fired a top dollar defense attorney paid for by his company and settled for a public defender and now he's arguing with her too."

"Why the hell would he want to be remanded?" Elliot asked, "He's a bigger target in Rikers than out on the streets."

"Did you find anything to support Munch's theory that his employers might try to kill him if he talks?" Casey asked.

"Warner's checking out the bodies, we got five of them exhumed yesterday," Elliot answered.

"See what Warner says."


	8. Chapter 8

"You guys know there's no shortage of new dead bodies, right?" Warner asked as they entered the autopsy room, "I don't need job security this bad."

"Did you find anything that looks questionable?" Olivia asked.

"I ran my findings against the original coroner's reports and death certificates…Daniel Mueller, the one Beck said got his carotid artery severed with a piece of a bottle…checks out, there are _still_ slivers of glass in the wound."

"Okay so if the company was cleaning house they probably wouldn't pay that much attention to detail," Elliot said, "probably just slit his throat with a knife, leave a broken bottle near the body and call it good."

"The others were all shot, and the positioning of the bullets in the bodies is everything, we all know how the press has a field day if somebody turns up with entry wounds in his back."

"And these?" Olivia asked.

"Two shot in the chest, one in the stomach, one in the ribs, and one in the face."

"Oof," Elliot cringed.

"The angling and trajectory of the wounds are consistent with somebody making a lunging movement in front of the gun, nobody just walked up to these people and blew them away," Melinda told them. "Also nobody shot any of them in the back of the head."

"So much for that theory," Olivia said.

"Guess Munch can sleep a little easier," Elliot commented.

"No he won't, he'll just redirect his conspiracy theory so this is still a cover up," Olivia replied.

"What about the blood found in the car?" Elliot asked, "did you get anything definitive on it?"

"It does match a sample of David's taken from a doctor's appointment, _but_ I don't think he was assaulted…there were a couple nostril hairs found in it."

"So David had a nosebleed."

"That still doesn't mean Clancy didn't hit him," Elliot said.

"That alone doesn't, but when CSU turned the car inside out, there were travel packs of Kleenex and a jar of petroleum jelly in the glove box. It sounds like David or _somebody_ who frequented that car gets nosebleeds on a regular basis."

"Is that serious?" Olivia asked.

"People today tend to hear nosebleed and think leukemia, but there are other normal causes for everyday episodes, dry climate, weakened blood vessels, if he was a compulsive nose picker when he was younger, he would have weakened his nasal membrane."

"And Clancy would've known that and been ready," Olivia said.

"Good old, dependable, trustworthy Roger," Elliot remembered the housekeeper's comment.

* * *

"He dumped this kid somewhere, we don't know if he's dead or alive," Elliot said as they drove back to the station, "State troopers have retraced his steps as far back as the highway, before that we have no way of knowing where he was."

"Elliot," Olivia looked at him, "it's been too long…if David was alive when Clancy got rid of him, he couldn't have been anywhere that he'd have access to food and water for too long."

"I can't accept that," Elliot shook his head.

"You heard what he said," Olivia told him.

"Yeah, he said David was gone, that doesn't automatically mean dead."

"He also said we'd never find him."

"How many times have we heard that before?" Elliot asked, "it doesn't mean anything, he didn't confess to killing him, we don't have a body."

"And we may never," Olivia replied. "The only good thing is that there's no family who won't get closure if we don't."

"Liv, there are just too many things that don't add up. Clancy's already looking at the death penalty, so why wouldn't he just admit that David's dead if he did kill him?"

"Maybe Huang or Skoda has an answer," Olivia said, "some deep rooted denial, if he admits it it suddenly becomes real."

"That's reaching," Elliot told her.

"Well we don't have anything else to go on," Olivia replied.

"Well there's got to be something," Elliot said, "why is this guy holding back?"

* * *

"Miss Novak," Casey heard a man call to her as she stepped out of the courtroom and turned around.

"Mr. Beck, what brings you here?" she asked.

"I've been to Rikers, tried to speak to John, tried to talk some sense into him," Evan told her.

"That's damn stupid, that's what his lawyer's for," Casey said.

"I got him a lawyer, John wouldn't take him, what the hell is going on here?"

"You tell me and we'll both know."

"You still think I'm hiding something?" Beck was appalled.

"Mr. Beck, the facts are as plain as day, Clancy killed Moll, he kidnapped David, he ditched the gun, he got rid of David somewhere, and you still refuse to accept that he's guilty."

"You don't have a gun, you don't have any witnesses."

"And I don't have David, if Clancy didn't kill him, where is he?" Casey asked.

"If I'm covering something up, why isn't he telling me?" Beck returned.

"I'm not sure," Casey admitted, "but just because your employee doesn't trust you doesn't prove to me that I should either."

"Miss Novak, something is wrong here," Beck told her.

"I know, Mr. Beck, and you're part of it," Casey said. "Clancy's pleading not guilty but everything he's doing screams that he is guilty, and he doesn't even seem to care. Why is that?"

* * *

"We tried putting a jailhouse informant in Clancy's cell, the guy's not talking," Cragen told Casey.

"Besides that, the snitch tells us that Clancy's sleeping like a baby," Fin said, "whatever he did, he's not feeling any guilt for."

"Any takers on why that is?" Cragen asked.

Skoda explained, "George and I both tried talking to him."

"He say anything?"

"Aside from something of not having to do anything except stay white and die, no, not really," Skoda shook his head.

"He wouldn't tell us anything, he's not telling his lawyer anything," Casey said, "And his employer is trying to get him to talk to him."

"Is it possible they're both involved?" Skoda asked.

"I have gone over everything in SafeTCorp's background, the whole operation just seems too shady," Casey said, "but I've had the financial records checked three times, there's not one comma out of place, that money isn't going anywhere that it's not supposed to. Beck seems to be on the up and up but for some reason he just refuses to admit that Clancy is guilty, and I don't think it's just for the reputation of his business."

"What else is there then?" Elliot asked.

"I don't know," Casey answered.

"Maybe you should arrange another meeting with him," Skoda suggested.

"Why? You think he knows something?" Casey asked.

"I don't know," Skoda replied, "but the question that needs answering right now is _why_ is he so devoted to maintaining his employee's innocence?"

"I can't talk to him," Casey said, "if anything he would be a witness for the defense."

Elliot thought of something and blurted out, "Unless we can get him to lead us to the evidence Clancy's guilty."

All eyes were suddenly on him.

"What do you mean?" Casey asked.

Elliot thought before he answered this time and admitted, "I'm not sure…but maybe if we go back over the evidence there'll be something that'll convince Beck, then he'd be a witness for the prosecution, and we could talk to him."

"Why not?" Casey asked, "What else have we got to lose?" Though inwardly a few things came to mind, her dignity, her career, etc.

* * *

"Miss Novak, you realize how outrageous this is," the public defender said during their meeting in the prison's interview room. "I could haul you before the ethics committee."

"Oh I know how outrageous it is," Casey replied, "I also know that your client isn't doing himself any favors by refusing to speak to _anybody_ , Mr. Beck or myself that's no surprise, but you can't even prepare an adequate defense for him when he won't give you any details of what happened."

"And why should that matter to you?"

"Because a 12 year old boy is still out there somewhere, and if he's alive we need to find him, and if he's not, he still deserves a proper burial," Casey said.

"John," Evan looked at the man sitting across from him at the table, "what happened out there?"

Clancy's eyes were hard as stone and not focused on anything as he told his employer, "Don't ask me that, Mr. Beck, I can't answer."

"Where'd you get the gun you shot Steven Moll with?" Casey asked.

"He doesn't have to answer that," the public defender said.

"Well he better start talking to somebody soon, he's too functional for an insanity plea to work, our psychiatrists have already spoken to him and deduced there is nothing mentally wrong with him," Casey replied.

"How could they determine that when he wouldn't talk to them?"

"All of you go away," Clancy said as he stood up from the table. "I've got nothing to say to anybody."

"John, don't be stupid," Beck told him. "If you don't tell what happened, you're going to go to prison, you could get the death penalty."

"My conscience is clear, I didn't do anything wrong," Clancy replied.

* * *

"Well Mr. Beck, are you convinced yet?" Casey asked as they left the prison.

"No. I'm not."

"I don't get it, Mr. Beck," she told him, "all the evidence is staring you right in the face, why is it so impossible for you to admit that despite all your best efforts, all your background checks and psyche evaluations, that you missed something, and you let a killer slip through your fingers?"

"Because I don't believe he's guilty," Beck answered.

"Let me ask you something, Mr. Beck, would you jump this far into it if it were any other of your bodyguards?" Casey asked.

"Yes, I would," he answered, "I don't make mistakes, when I hire somebody I know they're the best."

"Then explain Steven Moll's murder," Casey said.

"It's not murder if John was justified in shooting him," Beck answered.

Casey stopped and looked at him. "You know something we don't?"

"All I know is that's the only thing that makes sense."

"If that were the case, he would've told you what it was, wouldn't he?" Casey asked.

"What do you think I've been trying to get him to do? We train our men to throw themselves on live grenades, not on their own swords. Miss Novak do you really think that if John was guilty of murder, he wouldn't just lie about it and say it was justifiable?"

"It would be the shortest distance between two points," Casey said, "but how do you explain him not saying _anything_?"

"I can't, but I can't believe he just shot Moll for no reason either and kidnapped David for no reason," Beck replied.

"He torched David's school uniform, his backpack, his school books, what does that tell you?" Casey asked.

"I don't know, but it _doesn't_ tell me that he killed David, it wouldn't make sense to dispose of his belongings separately from the body. If he were as cold blooded as you think he is, what would've stopped him from dousing David in gasoline and setting him on fire as well?"

"I saw 'Seeds of Doubt', Mr. Beck, the facts are more important than your _need_ for Clancy to be innocent," Casey said.

"But you don't _have_ all the facts, Miss Novak," Beck replied. "There's something that's not adding up here."

"A lot of things actually," Casey suddenly thought of something. She looked at Beck and mentioned, "When Clancy was caught on camera leaving the motel he was wearing camouflage pants, a gray T-shirt and white sneakers. When the police arrested him 12 hours later he had on jeans, a black shirt and boots…the other clothes weren't in the car, what did he do with them?"

"What _was_ in the car?" Beck asked.

"I can get the inventory from evidence," Casey said.

"What happened _to_ the car?" Beck asked.

"Police impounded it for evidence too."

"You got all the evidence out of it you're going to, right?" Beck asked. "Get it out of impound, I want to see it."

"That's highly unethical, Mr. Beck."

"Maybe I know better what evidence to look for than your detectives do, we assigned him that car and everything that was initially in it."

"This goes _beyond_ unethical," Casey said. Still, when she considered her options she realized she didn't have any. "Alright, Mr. Beck, let's go."

* * *

"All the detectives found was what was in the trunk and the glove box," Casey explained as Evan walked around the car, examining every inch. "There was no suitcase, no change of clothes, and that emergency kit you mentioned was also nowhere to be seen."

"But he cleared all his stuff out of Moll's house, right?"

"Right, but we haven't been able to figure out what he did with it all."

"When the assignment's over, anything that hasn't been used is supposed to be returned to the company," Beck explained, "nothing turned up."

"You said they carry $10,000, right?" Casey asked.

"Yep."

"Do you know if he'd used any of it?"

"Nothing that we heard, that's just to get the hell out of Dodge if things hit the fan, we also supply them with petty cash for small purchases that won't draw attention."

"Like stopping at a motel for the night or at a diner for breakfast," Casey said.

"Stuff like that, yeah, get groceries, get gas," Beck went around to the driver's side door and climbed in.

Casey mentally kicked herself, wondering how she was ever going to explain any of this without being disbarred and thrown into jail herself.

"Miss Novak, something's wrong here," Beck called from the driver's seat.

Casey went around to the door on his side and asked, "What is it?"

"Check out the mileage," Beck pointed to the dashboard, "that SOB put 3,000 miles on this car in a week."

"Okay, that's excessive, but does it mean anything?" Casey asked.

"Yeah, every week part of the check-in report is how many miles were put on the car, it's an insurance measure to make sure nobody tampers with the tracking device," Beck explained.

"Clancy dismantled the tracking device so we don't know how much he put on it," Casey said.

"Yeah, but he checked in with us four days earlier, the average distance he puts on the car in any given week when things are uneventful is about 250 miles, if you think you're being followed you drive around for another half hour or so to make sure you shake them, nothing real substantial to add on top of the regular mileage, you know? When he called, he'd only put on 20 so far for the week. And there's no way he put all that extra on just in the two days he was on the run."

"But what does it mean?" Casey asked.

"It means he's been deactivating and reactivating the tracking device for weeks to take miles off the official report," Beck said.

"Which can only mean he didn't want anyone to know where he was going," Casey said. "How long do you figure he's been doing it?"

"Based on these numbers and the way I know he's capable of driving, I'd figure at least four weeks," Beck told her.

"So where has he been going all this time?" Casey asked. "When he used the car regularly, that you knew about, where all did he go?"

"Just basic stuff, pick David up from school, take him to school, get groceries, go to the post office, the bank, take David to the movies…"

"The post office?" Casey repeated, "what post office?"

* * *

"Yeah, he comes here," the clerk behind the counter said when he saw Clancy's picture, "mails a few packages…he has a box here."

"We'd like to see the contents of it," Olivia said.

"Oh I can't do that, it's against…" the man saw the badges she and Elliot were flashing and decided, "I suppose I can. Has he done anything?"

"Just open the box, please," Olivia said.

"Looks like John found a way around the no contact rule," Elliot said, "has private mail sent to a private box, the doctor doesn't know about it, nobody at SafeTCorp knows about it."

The clerk opened the box and the detectives were let down to discover it was empty.

"When was the last time he had mail?" Elliot asked.

"I couldn't say, I've been off the past two days," the clerk said.

"What kind of packages did he mail?" Olivia asked, "do you remember where any of them went?"

"Sorry," he shook his head.

"Another dead end," Olivia groaned to her partner.

"I hate to say it but I think we've finally run out of options," Elliot said.

And that meant accepting that David had to be dead, which Olivia knew was tearing Elliot up. Unfortunately they'd exhausted all leads, looked for others where none existed, and there didn't seem to be anything more that they could do.

* * *

"I'm not sure I understand, don't you have enough to convict Clancy on?" Cragen asked.

"I don't have the murder weapon and I can't prove what ultimately happened to David, but yeah, I think the jury will convict on murder 1," Casey said. "This whole case just doesn't set well with me."

"We've gone back over every square inch that we know Clancy was at between the murder and when he was arrested," Elliot said.

"And there's no way of tracking all his additional movements that he put in under the radar," Olivia added.

"Are you sure Beck's not involved?" Cragen asked.

"I really don't get the feeling he's hiding anything," Casey said, "he never stonewalled us."

"At the same time he was never too helpful either," Munch added.

"Well something screwy is going on," Cragen said. "Clancy is claiming defense without asserting any defense, he's not listening to his counsel, what's his aim?"

"The biggest obstacle I have is that there is no motive," Casey said, "we know he did it, we just don't know why, and even though that's not an actual requirement for trial, juries tend to follow them above all else, if there's no motive, there's room for reasonable doubt."

"Maybe that's what he has in mind," Munch said.

"I don't think so, the jury's still going to see this picture perfect family that he blew to hell, and the child has never been found, they'll convict on that if nothing else," Casey said.

"Picture perfect…" Olivia thought of something.

She took out the photograph of the safari park and asked Elliot, "Why do you suppose David saved this picture?"

"Souvenir of the park," Elliot guessed, "the only picture with Clancy in it."

"It's also the only picture in that whole house we saw of David and his father together," Olivia said. "All the others we took to show Clancy, those weren't family photos…Elliot, take out your wallet."

"Why, you want to turn a $50 bill into a 20?"

"Just do it."

Elliot reached into his back pocket and took out his billfold.

"Now show me the pictures of your kids," Olivia said.

He did. "Maureen's first dance, Kathleen's birthday, Dickie's Little League game, Lizzie winning the spelling bee."

"These actually look like family photos," Olivia said, "David's all looked like the school took them. And you saw that house, the whole living room wall was a monument to Steven Moll's ego."

"That's not a surprise," Fin said, "both the docs figured Clancy's motive was Dad was neglecting the kid."

"But then _what_ happened to David?" Casey asked. "That's what we can't find out, we've searched everywhere."

"We haven't been able to find a possible motive John Clancy would have for killing Steven Moll, and we searched through all the records that Beck and SafeTCorp had on both of them," Elliot said.

"Here's a wild idea," Munch said, "just because Beck didn't withhold anything from us doesn't mean Moll didn't withhold anything from him."

"Like what?" Casey asked. "Beck's policy is to do a complete background check on all would be clients."

"Maybe the chink in Beck's armor wasn't his bodyguard, maybe it was Moll's life story," Munch said.

"You know," Olivia thought of something, "for a rich doctor who can afford everything in sight…there was no safe in that house, no lock box, nothing, so where would a guy like that keep all his important documents?"

"I can think of a couple places," Casey said, "and both of them require going over his financial records again."

* * *

"Here's every piece of paper that Steven Moll had locked up in a storage space he'd been renting since he moved in," Elliot announced as they put two boxes of documents on their desks.

"Cross check every document here against the records Beck kept on file," Casey said.

"You're not going to stay for this slumber party, counselor?" Munch asked.

"I have to go find McCoy and explain what happened today without him hauling my ass to the ethics committee," Casey said, "keep your fingers crossed."

"You do the same for us," Munch called after her.

"So what exactly are we looking for?" Fin asked.

"Anything that's different, or missing, from the files SafeTCorp had on Moll," Olivia said.

"Gonna be another long night," Fin said.

"Well, let's get started," Elliot said.

* * *

Olivia rubbed her stiff neck as she turned another page. "It's amazing how someone who could never want for anything turned out to have what it takes to finish med school and become such a proficient doctor."

"Yeah, everywhere I look it's silver spoon central," Elliot said, "parents were loaded, best private schools, captain of the lacrosse team, captain of the squash team, captain of the swim team…"

"All of which he either passed or forced onto David," Olivia said, "his room was full of sports equipment."

"Yeah, but Clancy picked him up at the same time every day right after school was out," Elliot said.

"Maybe sports didn't work for him," Olivia thought.

"Top of his class, top of his class, and oh look at that, top of his class," Munch said, "From grade school to med school. How is it possible for somebody to be so perfect? It's not human."

"It used to be called buying the answers from someone else," Elliot commented.

"You don't suppose Clancy was just sick to death of this guy having the perfect life, do you?" Munch asked.

"I doubt it, John," Olivia replied.

"You sure?" Munch said. "If I were 20 years younger I might be tempted to take an ashtray to the skull of somebody like this."

"So if he got all this money, why couldn't he spring for a full time maid?" Fin asked. "Live-in, even."

"Makes you wonder if something really was going on once the help went home for the day," Munch said.

"Why did Clancy have private tutors for David for 6 years?" Elliot asked.

"Supposedly they were on the move too much for him to attend school, even though the neighbors say they'd lived there for 5 years," Olivia said.

"Let's assume for a minute that they were a bunch of jetsetters," Cragen said, "what suddenly changed 3 months ago?"

Elliot and Olivia started sorting through the papers by dates and Elliot concluded, "Nothing where their finances are concerned."

"Nothing except David turned 12 back then," Olivia said, "here's a receipt for a $50 birthday cake."

"For that much money, I wonder what pops out of that?" Munch mused.

Olivia grabbed another stack of papers and started flipping through them.

"I still don't get what we're looking for here," Cragen said, "if Moll omitted something from SafeTCorp and Clancy found it out, how could Clancy disclosing it now be a problem now that Moll's dead?"

"Whatever it was, why didn't he tell it instead of killing the guy?" Fin asked.

"Clancy keeps his mouth shut, even the best lawyer can't turn the jury's attention away from the chain of events, Moll gets his brains blown out, Clancy cleans house, Clancy picks up the kid, Clancy's arrested and the kid is never found. It's a sure shot to the needle, so why the hell is he keeping quiet if there's something that would justify the shooting?" Cragen asked. "He's not doing himself any favors with this code of silence crap, so who the hell is he protecting?"

Olivia looked up from the papers and answered, "David."


End file.
